We've seen a welcome return of what we'd call normal weather here in western PA.  With that is also coming the end of the planting season for this year. Over the last couple of weeks, we've bought our small selection of hardy mums and some clearance perennials to plant into the fall. Included in these are 2 additional types of hardy hibiscus and 2 types of panicle hydrangea. The panicles were starter sizes of Pinky Winky and Little Lamb.

Well, things have maintained pretty well durnig July. Most summer bloomers have come to fruition, as the hydrangea rebloomers have finished with their first flush and are working on their 2nd, and the hydrangea paniculatas are now fully into their mid-summer blooming. Joining my faves have been roses at their 2nd flush, and butterfly bushes beginning their bloom cycle. We've kind of moved into some more humid weather to go with increased heat, so it hasn't affected the plants as bad as the dry heat did earlier in the month.

I forgot to post that I recently added a Pee Gee hydrangea tree at 4' tall and stuck it in the northeast corner of the yard - another winner from Giant Eagle which at their premium locations carry good plants at good prices throughout the Summer.

Two days of burning sun put a bit of a "whippin'" on the yard and garden, so today I was forced to water down the beds by hand a couple of times, the first of which was just IN time to save a few poor souls from completely wilting or drooping over. Into the evening I then turned on the sprinklers in both the front and back for a few hours, which will need to happen twice a week while it is dry outside. 

TIme to recap the last week in my Garden. We've been in another dry spell, although not as hot as it was during last month's - which most of the plants are taking very well. Anyway, I've bookmarked Home Depot as the clearance hydrangea capital of the world for the last week of June, as they had palletsful of very nice "public domain" specimens at 50% off! Adding to my collection is now a 2nd 10-gal David Ramsey, which was $20 and had at least 10 new blooms ready to flush out on new wood. Also I added my first Hydrangea serrata, Grayswood, which has uniquely rosy leaves and is a lacecap for my patio entrance (shade area). I also picked up a Black Knight butterfly bush, which fit nicely along my west fence border. The only major work I did to fit these in was moving my dwarf Rhodies from the patio entrance (where they weren't doing well at all) to my back hillside in between the regular Rhodies. I then put my Forever & Ever lacecap and the Grayswood in those open places, while moving the Forever & Ever Fantasia where the lacecap was, since it can take more sun than most. 

This week's update features the finale of annual flower selections for 2011, as well as some more ongoing tasks around the garden.

First we'll start with two new perennial selections: carpet roses! You can't really get these in smaller sizes than mature, or for less than $20, so today I found Amber and Scarlett colors from Monrovia at Stanford Home Center.  These will make a nice low ground cover along my full-sun fence beds where needed.

Now for the annuals. For the last few weeks, my wife and I have been looking for New Guinea Impatiens and some more Dusty Miller to fill some tighter areas in the front, and the only place that ended up having them was K-Mart!

Other tasks done included some weeding in the front, grasscutting and edging, and it was finally time to move the Herbstonne rudbeckia from between the Endless Summer hydrangeas in the north bed to the west fence bed. 

A couple of days without the burning heat, combined with a milder forecast means even more work done outside! I had actually not planned to do anything outdoors until we stopped at Lowe's while waiting for our tire service next door. We ended up getting a 3-gal Peppermint hydrangea, with tons of blooms. But I was angry at either Lowe's or Forever & Ever (the grower) because I had bought a smaller one out of bloom which clearly wasn't peppermint afterward. I am also having a beef with another F&E product that's looking a lot like their Summer Lace instead of Red Sensation. Anyhow, we also got a Red Heart Althea rose of sharon sapling and a clump of Gaillardia "Arizona" variety.

To work in these new additions, I decided to finally extend the east wall bed around to meet the driveway 5 feet up. There I placed the Althea in front of the downspout, moved the old supposed-peppermint in front of that, and also sunk my Endless Summer Twist n Shout between it and the Blushing Bride. To fill the spaces in between all of this, I divided and moved 2 types of daylilies, 2 clumps of liriope grass.

The new Peppermint hydrangea was a bit of a task, because my wife wanted it out front for everyone to see, so I really had to think hard for a location. Then, I realized that if I smoothed out the lawn's curves around the yews, it made an excellent nook for it. I then cut the bed out to suit and vwallah!

In doing these things, I was thinning down the east fence bed too. I divided the Zagreb coreopsis twice. At that point, I was really on a roll, so if anything else was done, I forget and it's not that important!

Lastly I trimmed back the yew bushes, as they need every year. More of a clerical activity than anything, and the results are usually good. I might be talented at topiary, you never know!

Well, a few days ago I finished cutting out the northwest corner of the west fence bed. Haven't added or moved any plants to the open soil areas yet - but I will debate which to do so with by the end of Summer into early Fall. Now we're back in a pattern with moist, humid days with half sun, half overcast with temps seldom topping 80 and a few rain showers each day. Needless to say, the plants love it! I'd rather have partly cloudy skies with cool dry air, but can't win them all. At least the plants won't be frying in 90 degree heat any time soon.

Weeds and summer die-down. That lushness of Spring just never lasts, does it?! So today it was comfy and dry, perfect conditions for cutting out the rest of the west fence bed and tackling the latest round of weeds. Also put in 2 pots of Goldsturm black eyed susans that were purchased last week. The growth of things has slowed, but all of the lilies and hydrangeas are getting into bloom and other types are getting ready for their first and second flushes of flowers. 

So today I had a weather window + energy to take care of some of those issues I've discussed in my last post. To make a long story short, I thinned out some plants in my east wall bed that weren't doing so well, mainly by moving them to the newly cut rounded corner of the west fence bed. Included in these moves were the pink & white knockout roses, and the orange/yellow/double-delight tea roses (scrawny and destroyed by insects). I also moved there and divided a clump of purple coneflower, Red Fox Speedwell, pink Chrysanthemum, and a couple of perennial bachelor buttons. Back in the east wall bed, to refill the semi-blank areas left by the moves, I arranged four of my hydrangeas that were struggling in their previous locations. These included the Lemon Daddy, one of the Blushing Brides, a pink Endless Summer, and my Forever & Ever Early Sensation. These were arranged in sets of BB+ES / FE+LD on either side of my air conditioning unit. All that was left after that was a couple of small spaces between the two sets, which I filled in with small clumps of black-eyed susans.

First Heat Wave

Heat, heat, heat! And very little rain... It's been a rough couple of weeks for the newest additions to my garden. Seems at this point that if I don't water things every other day, they suffer from severe droop. At the least, I'm glad this is just a water issue, as leaf scorch hasn't really come into play. Ten minutes of whole-can-watering of the strugglers perks them right up after each incident. This is a good sign because it means the plants physically are both sun-tolerant and heat-acclimated, just not well enough established root-wise. I'm about two-thirds finished cutting out the fence beds, and I'm also planning to wrap my east wall bed around to meet my driveway five feet up toward the front of my property.

Well, today I received the last of my back-ordered plants, which are 3 hydrangeas that are going to live in pots for at least a couple of years. Once again, those were the Mathilda Gutges, Pia, and Harlequin (picotee) varieties. These are in great shape with woody stems and should take off nice as they will also have a chance to overwinter in my garage.

Tomorrow, I plan to get out at the crack of dawn to resume bed cutting and I need to make a few last minute transplants. Those roses in my east wall bed are doing terribly, and they need to be moved pronto! Again, these include five items which are hot pink knockout, sunny knockout, oregold tea, orange tea, double-delight tea. As of now, the leaves have been severely eaten back by undetermined insects that have left all of the other plants in this bed alone! The few leaves that aren't completely eaten off look like swiss cheese! These should probably regenerate in a different (sunnier) environment, though.

Okay, time to shift from diary mode to status updates. I've been working a bit more overtime lately, and beyond that we've been in a long spell of predominantly dry weather with temps soaring into the 90's. And that can only mean one thing - planting season is over! Rightfully so, as most things in the yard are now established and steadily growing, with some beginning to bloom. Now, I've shifted my work to saving struggling plants, weed control, and cutting out the remainder of the "fence" beds. 

Visit to Trax Farms

Been busy over the last few days, so haven't got to do much except watch things grow. And boy they have. But.... I did put the icing on the cake with my last official shrub purchases of 2011 on the 20th. I had the pleasure of stopping down to Trax Farms nursery in Finleyville PA. They basically carry all the new or recent introductions of flowering shrubs. Being on my neverending hydrangea kick, I picked up 3 gems: Great Star paniculata, Forever & Ever Fantasia, and Bella Anna arborescens! Will plant tomorrow if weather permits.

Alright, we went out to Wal-Mart for our weekly shopping run, and as always we checked out the outdoor section for clearance items and the like. What we found was not only more than we expected, but everything we'd hoped for! It's clear that every major retailer carries Endless Summer hydrangeas, but the least common variety I've seen is Blushing Bride. On a whim, I decided to "dig a hole" in between the Twist n' Shouts and the Originals near the back of the display, and low and behold - about a half-dozen BB's! So I picked up two healthy ones, and while I was doing that my wife began to get excited about 5 feet away. About what? Oh, just $25 Jane Magnolia and a dogwood tree! As it turns out, we had to make 2 trips to the car on separate bills, but everything magically fit as usual. Another successful night - will plant tomorrow. 

A miserable rainy day, but found a  5-minute window to put in the northwest corner of the yard my new starter Viburnum Opulus Roseum (snowball bush), which came in the mail. Later on, I was browsing around the Internet and found some more great starter hydrangeas, which I will certainly grow outdoors - only this time in pots for the first year or two. These included two Mme Emille Mouillere (white), a Pia (pink - might stay in a pot), Mathilda Gutges (all-color chameleon), and a Harlequin (pink with white edged leaves). These potted starters will all surely receive varied amounts of sun and the elements as needed, and hopefully will shoot up to great sizes sooner than later!

At work, bothering me were a few empty spaces I'd left in the west/addition room beds. By the time I left, I caved and went to get a Lemon Daddy hydrangea at Penn Hills L&G. I also saw a nice 3' astilbe that would be put in within 10 feet of the hydrangea. To install these correctly, I moved a clump of Stella D'Oro lilies, a dwarf spirea bush, and one of the upstart buddleias to the northwest corner bed area. Mission complete!

Tricky day :( - one  where the whole plant placement strategy thing has a hard time coming together. Main target areas were: north hillside bed, addition room bed, and west wall bed.  Started out good as I left work; plucked another healthy butterfly bush out from beside some railroad tracks, got it home and in the ground. I figured it would look nice by my compost pile and it does! Next, I addressed the culvert area of the north bed , which is a cut away portion of the hillside where outlet is from SE house downspout and driveway drain. This extends from where the newly planted butterfly bush is, another 10' to the main part of the bed, which extends all the way west to the NW corner of the property. I began by moving further away the baby spruce and evergreen euonymus that were occupying the space, and decided to move our two rhododendrons there from the west wall bed. This was a good idea, because the rhodies were not getting enough sun in their former locations, as many I'd seen around the area were in full bloom while mine had zero. I spaced them 5' apart and moved on to placing the new hydrangeas. As usual, I had to figure out how to do this based on hardiness and sun needs. First off, I'm not that huge on lacecaps but I so far enjoy the upright growth habit. To this end, I decided to put it in a 3 gallon deco pot for the first season, where it will reside at the front of my porch slab and receive midday shade from our big maple tree. I then decided to place the Ramsey hydrangea between the two rhodies where it will receive moderate sun. The Charm will also receive moderate sun at the NW corner of the addition room, but may need winter protection.

Hydrangea Addiction Refueled

Okay, so we didn't plan to go anywhere in the afternoon becuase we were tired, but at 7pm we decided to run a few errands at the last minute. Seeing as how we hadn't stopped at Home Depot in quite a long time, I decided to give them a shot since it was on our route. In three simple words: hydrangeas, hydrangeas, hydrangeas! Not good for my addiction! The prices were unbeatable to boot, and they had at least 10 different sizes and/or varieties to choose from. I ended up with three: a 3' tall Charm, 3' tall David Ramsey, and a very healthy Endless Summer Twist n' Shout lacecap.

Before the storms rolled in at 6pm, got everything in the ground - looks great and it's all getting its first soaking right now! I forgot to mention which annuals we purchased, so I'll tell you now (we put these at the front of the property only). We started with mostly petunias, which we enjoy the mounding habit of immensely. Then, we got a few snapdragons, whose upright habit serves skinny areas better. Then we got some barbarini dianthus, which for $1 a square you can't beat, because they're always marked as annuals but will come back perennially here!. Lastly we got 2 trays of celosia for around the mailbox.  

Made one of my "Spring sweeps" of regional garden centers in the east suburbs. All of the following are pretty decent outfits, but there are some subtle differences. Started at Penn Hills Lawn & Garden Center, which is tidy and has a decent selection with good prices. There, I picked up an upshooting campanula "blue clips" and a popular "home run" rose bush. From there, I moved on to Beall's Nursery in Plum for my first visit ever - decent selection, prices not that great! To me, just seems like one of those boutique outfits for people with 300K homes looking to drop 5K on instant landscaping. Then I wrapped down 286 to Stanford Home Center, one of the larger "Do It Best" chain locations. They always seem to have some oddball plant types and have been known to goof on a few occasions. Hence, didn't take me long to find a 5gal Pink N Pretty hydrangea retail for a mere $20! Visiting across the street at Holiday Garden Center (huge selection, okay prices), they had the same PNP's half the size for $30! Lastly, I stopped up at Lowe's to pick up 2 more 1gal Forever & Ever starter hydrangeas - "peppermint" and "early sensation". They were really letting their stuff go up there, but these still had some good growth on them.

One of my pet peeves about the non-big-box garden centers is: why do they have to sell nothing but the huge 3-5 gal pots of shrubs and charge 50 bucks for it, when they could just sell me a starter size for $15 bucks? Are they afraid the small size makes them more prone to failure? I prefer to grow things from a young age, because it's more rewarding and it fits my budget! Besides, you can order mostly small sizes on the Internet, and they usually ship well bare-root in a box!

At any rate, that concludes my rant for the day - will get out and work tomorrow!

Picked up some annuals at Wal-Mart last night, in addition to a 4-stalk orange asiatic lily and a pot of scabiosa. The scabiosa and lily will go on the west side bed, which gets part shade. The annuals will go mainly in areas toward the front of the house, which get mostly sun. This includes 3 colors of dianthus (which can act as perennials here!), petunias (various), and a few snapdragons. I will put them in either this afternoon or tomorrow; both days are supposed to be great, with highs around 80 and no rain!

Another update: the potted starters on my front porch are taking off nicely, which include 25 liatris and 2 bleeding heart plants, started from just corms and roots, respectively. 

A Happy Mother's Day - beautiful one at that - but not one to be out gardening because a) it's the middle of my workweek and b) I'm all caught up on things. (Couldn't imagine going to a store, either!) I did do one thing in the morning, however. The small pink Endless Summer hydrangea I got at the end of last season doesn't seem to be taking off like it should, a.k.a. a couple small leaflets and mostly bare stems. Thinking about it more closely, this is no surprise considering it's on the west side of my house, which gets shade until after noon and then again after about 4. To jumpstart it with more light, I moved it to the east side bed in a temporary position, until I extend the bed 4-5' south of the front garage wall. This new portion of the bed, which will get between 6-10 hours of sun, features the vanilla strawberry hydrangea paniculata, a couple clumps of lilies, and a few other small perennials and annuals.

Into the evening, before leaving for work, I decided to come up with a final backyard design, which includes a shed/barn, and a sitting area. To do this accurately, I grabbed a screen capture of the aerial image of my property, blew it up, and drew in the borders. 

Clear skies overhead = back to work outside. Spent longer than originally thought I would, but in gardening this usually pays off! I decided to re-work the northeast corner of the property in order to accomodate the new hydrangea (rear), the two new dianthus (middle), and the pink gaura (front). This required moving the foxglove I had there to a different location, moving a fire&ice hosta 6 inches to the left, and moving a couple new sprigs of mexican primrose from the area. Being a windy day, it was a bit hard to work but you deal with the hand you're given.

After, the northeast corner was complete, I moved to the west wall bed, which is mostly shady. There I made room for the clearance bleeding heart plant, by dividing down a few hostas there and relocating a few baby astilbe

.

Continuing to fear for the safety of the three "florist hydrangeas" that had been getting too much sun, I decided to move them to the south end of the east fence in the back yard. There are now two pink Merritt's Surpremes with a Nikko Blue in between. Hopefully they will shoot up large this summer, get well established, and make it strong into next year! This means I will be dropping from a 6 to a 5 hydrangea arrangement in the north rear bed, going to annabelle-dooley-x-dooley-annabelle sequence.

Finally, I remembered to level the two 2x2 patio stones that lead from the northeast corner of the lawn to the compost pile. I used a bucket of the sand that was originally used to level them on the makeshift patio in front of the addition room.

On my weekly browse, stopped up to Lowe's to check out their selection. They are STUFFED with plants this first week of May! And rightly so, my wife gave me a $25 spending limit to avoid going absolutely crazy. This in mind, I decided to pick up my first Forever & Ever hydrangea, a Red Sensation. These are everblooming, hardy, and can grow to 4' high x 3' wide, which will be best located in the northeast corner of the property. This knocked out the first 16 bucks for a 1gal pot. Then I got a 2' tall bleeding heart plant for $3 on clearance, and a gaura for $4.

Later that night, we made our weekly run to Wal-Mart for groceries, and in doing so we picked up 2 different kinds of gallon dianthus, magenta and red. Then we sprung for a trio of hanging baskets for eve that overhangs the garage doors out front.

Deer Attack!

Drat! A few days after I tought I'd thoroughly treated the "succulents" on my property, the damned deer came up their favorite path through the woods (after which includes my backyard) and nibbled on 2 of my arborescens hydrangeas! Now, it had rained a good bit during that time but I didn't think it would be enough to bring on such an atrocity. Anyhow, all I could do was surround the smaller one with a fence and soak them both with a new coating. Now, it's been said that there are two types of hydrangea that deer seem to avoid (oakleaf and climbing) but I have neither of those, and don't currently plan to. 

The icing on the cake on another week in the garden. Started by mowing and edging / weed whacking. Then I moved on to spreading the 6 bags of black mulch that I bought last night - mostly in the new bed I dug out yesterday. Taking a break in the middle of that, I finished the last 5 blocks of the over-the-hillside retaining wall, having to move 5 hosta clumps in the process. Then I moved two 2x2 cement tiles from my makeshift back patio, and placed them leading from the northeast corner of the lawn to the compost pile over the hill. After all that, finished the mulching and watered it all down. Ha!

Before cleaning up, I moved 2 hollyhocks into sunnier locations before they grew and larger and their roots became impossible to rip from the ground! (One went to the northeast fence corner and the other went into the east side foudation bed.) Also in the east bed, I separated striped dead nettle (lamium) from the spotted, and placed it in 4 spots along the  east fence bed. Watered it down.

Lastly, back up front at the garage, planted 25 liatris corms and 2 bleeding heart roots in a total of 8 2-qt pots. I had bought these at least a month ago and I didn't want to leave them go in fear of them rotting or drying out in their bags. 

Time to get those new plants in the ground! Of course, this unique new ensemble required a new section of bed to be cut and some plants to be moved around to accomodate them. First, I extended the east fence bed south 15 feet, amending the soil with sand and peat moss. Then I had to switch a few new Stella d'Oro lilies around to make room for moving my still-small limelight hydrangea north to a sunnier spot. Moved some other small plants and then placed the newly divided clumps in clear spaces.

After a busy workweek - filled with rain to boot - things are looking up for the garden again this middle-of-the-week-end! Everything is coming in very strong this season, right down to the lawn and the dandelions I thought I vanquished last season. The hydrangeas are doing great, even the hydrangea macrophyllas which are only experiencing a slight bit of wilting.

Today, a friend of my mother's let us come out to her place, a sprawling country property only 25 minutes from my house. She had tons of spreading plants for us to divide. Astilbes, daylilies (pastels), water irises, ornamental grasses, sedum, zagreb coreopsis, heuchera, etc.  We transported the clumps back home in pots and bags, and left them outside to plant tomorrow. Tonight I am going to pick up some black mulch to add to the ground after planting.

Some Plant Shopping and Reviews

Big day out there today. Went plant shopping again, received those other four hydrangea (2 white 2 blue) in the mail, and had numerous tasks to do around the yard. We went to 380 Auction Barn in nothern rural Murrysville - I highly recommend this place to anyone in the SW PA area! Amazing deals on perennial plants. We got 2 daylilies which had 2 fans in each, and some other randoms. They tend to sell by the pot size, e.g. $4 per trade gallon.

We also stopped by Kubrick Bros. nursery on Coxcomb Hill Rd. in Plum. I DO NOT recommend their stuff. They continuously divide mostly spreading plants into very small divisions and sell them for obnoxious prices. You probably won't find much there that you can't get elsewhere for somewhat cheaper. 

Deciduous Shrub Observations

During the 2010 gardening season, I bought a total of 4 Endless Summer hydrangeas, which I planted on the north and west sides of my home. Of course these are supposed to the the most hardy compact hydrangeas you can buy, and are hardy in Zone 6b for sure. During an investigation of the bud health yesterday, I'm rather disappointed with their overwintering this past season, as in my opinion this was not a particularly harsh one. Even though they've only been in the ground for one season, I felt they should've done a little better, so I assumed they hadn't become established enough yet. Basically, buds that were 4" above the ground and below were the ones that survived, and the ones above that shriveled or have not begun to leaf out yet. Going nextdoor to examine my neighbor's ES buds, his had similar results after being in the ground for at least 5 years! This next winter, I am going to try piling maple leaves in a cone atop the canes and throwing a burlap square over them, weighing the cloth down with rocks or bricks on the side. With only a couple nightly lows near 0, this should do well for them. Most of my perennials will grow excellently until early-to-mid November, so that's when I will perform most of my overwintering treatments on these shrubs.

Got some pink creeping phlox at Walmart last night - 2 pots for $4 each. I have a lot of space to fill between bushes, shrubs, and larger plants in the sunny areas of my garden, so these will spread and fill nicely in this regard! Also planted what I had in the "queue". The pink hydrangeas are 2 of a total of 6 that I will have lining the middle of the garden bed that descends the first 10 freet down the hillside (the other four will be two Nikko Blue and two Annabelle). Also completed the rear retaining wall for this bed using discarded wall blocks from the previous homeowner. I found at least 50 of these around the property, allowing for a 2-3 row high retainer, nicely finishing off the back edge of my garden!

Received an arrangement featuring potted plants #6 ground ivy, what appears to be a Brestenburg hydrangea, and a Rieger begonia. Will plant with Easter hydrangeas tomorrow. The ivy will go along the back hillside and the begonia will go in a pot out front for the Summer, in mostly shady conditions.

Easter Plants

Last night picked up 2 pink Easter hydrangeas, variety Merritt's Supreme (macrophylla) for $9 each at Walmart. Little do most people realize, but when properly planted and cared for these can grow to be 6 feet tall and in diameter with little problem! The trick is getting good blooms each year - you must enclose and/or insulate the plants from harsh winter winds which will kill next year's flower buds if not suppressed. 

Start of a New Bed!

Started cutting out the newest bed along my neighbor's chain link fence. It will eventually run the length, but for now it's only about 10 feet in long by 6 feet deep. The exciting thing about new beds is that I never know exactly what's going to go where. I find things in stores and shops at a good price and fill in the blanks as I go! Already existant is a purple sand cherry, tall red sedum, dwarf barberry bush, and Russian sage. Started filling in with yellow blister cress and orange "mouse ear" coreopsis.

Start of 2011 Planting Season!

Planted clematis roots and a climbing rose along my neighbor's chain link fence. The fence was built by that house's original home owner, so we agreed that some nice flowering vines might spice things up a little. As I recall, the rose is a CL Blaze that was purchased at Walmart for $5.

Introduction

My name is Andrew. I am a steelworker who was born and raised in the Pittsburgh suburb of Forest Hills, PA. I am also a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh with a Bachelor of Arts in Information Science with a minor in Computer Science. Growing up, I always seemed to find myself digging about, cutting grass, helping build things outside, and performing other outdoor tasks as a home chore or neighborhood odd job. But the arrival of my mid 20's has seen me find my true passion of gardening! The funny part is I never thought I'd get so into it as a recreational activity, but I believe gardening has therapeutic quality about it that I can't get from anything else.

In 2008, my wife and I were fortunate to move into a 35-year-old 2-mile-long col de sac of homes in good upkeep, but most importantly one with many proud DIY gardeners and landscapers. Coming from such a background, I found myself fitting right in!

My home, a standard size split-entry, is situated on a decently sized parcel with about 8000 sq. feet of land. There is about 35 feet from the front of the house to the street, 15 and 25 feet between neighbors' houses (respectively), and 80 feet from the rear of the house to the rear property boundary, which is about 12 ft over a steep  hill that descends into a wooded valley. Virtually none of my property is flat - it gently descends from street level (front door is at street level) back to where the steeper hill begins.

Even though my home was in decent shape, the property needed some TLC to say the least. The original garden beds extended out 3-5' from the foundation walls on all sides, and were overrun by a combination of solid green + fire & ice hostas, weeds, snow on the mountain, and mint (not to mention ANT HILLS). Of course all you avid gardeners know that all of these spread and are very persistent! Most borders were "edged" by 3x5" landscaping timbers, some of which were rotted by sow bugs. Parts of the lawn were either bare, weed-infested, or mossy . Edges of lawns and beds were not curved or tidy. The rear boundary of the back yard met the hillside with no clear edge, running straight into brush, weeds, poison ivy, tree limbs, grapevines and "sticker" bushes. Slowly over time, however, I have worked to tame most of these issues. When complete, I will have well-suited, filled gardens around 100% of the home and property edges

Some landscaping perks that came with the home were things such as a 40 ft tall maple tree directly in the center of the front yard, a 4x4x12 ft yew hedge in front of the front basement window, a 10 ft arborvitae on the southwest corner, 2 small yews on the west side of the front porch, and two 8-ft lilac bushes on the west foundation wall.

General Timeline:

2008: we closed on the property in September, and most of the fall meant light remodeling around the home's interior. So nothing much got done outside. In fact, none of our outdoor tools had yet been purchased - so my parents did the cutbacks during Sept-Oct.

2009: Well, this was the most displeasing part. Featured things like removal of unwanted vegetation, temporary transplantation and division of hostas, lawn quality enhancement and edging, large scale weeding, and bed cutting.

2010: Let the aesthetics begin! This year saw the first round of annual and perennial shrub/tree/flower/bush purchases, and continued improvement of the landscape. I also began to drive around and "pirate" such things as wild rose of sharon and daylilies, and received some generous donations from my parents to incorporate into some of the bare areas I cleared in 2009.

2011: I'll consider this the first year of "tasteful refinement" of the landscape. This includes some important things like: more careful plant selection, carving out new beds and mixing soil with sand and peat moss, manipulation of fences, grades, sun and shade for various types of sub-gardens, water drainage and irrigation, wall building, edging with decorative and/or building materials.