When we first moved to Alabama, the backyard (and the bathroom) were the only pictures on Craigslist. The yard sold us! Dreams of AllieDog running freely, barbecue parties and veggie gardens danced in our heads. We moved in in February when everything was dormant and manageable...I quickly got to work carving out a piece of the sideyard for my tomatoes and zucchini, and potting fruits and flowers.
Then, April came, and I got pregnant. We both started working overtime, the summer heat rolled in, and found ourselves with a huge yard with no energy to tend it. I mean, we did our best: I'd occasionally spray weed killer (killing lawn patches along with weeds), and Trevor would mow every two weeks. But then winter rain came, with the baby following close behind, and we completely neglected our favorite asset of our rental.
So, for the purposes of honesty and motivation, is our current state of affairs:
Long ago, a hydrangea lived here.
The meadow. There is a paved path leading to the deck (with more potted weeds)... can you find it?
More meadow, with overgrown lavender and some sort of palmy/ferny/spiky thing out there.
Far overgrown and deceased veggie garden, and yep, more weeds.
Excessive amounts of concrete, and general chaos. We DID buy that patio set for $100 on craigslist, custom made.
We really aren't bad people. Swear. It's just the circumstances listed above, the incredible amount of rain, and this being our first yard to take care of... the excuses go on and on. We tackled the front yard this week, which we have not let get as bad as the back. I still have some clovers to pull, and would like to add come colorful flowers in, but it's passable.
our yard is currently DIRT. i bought a hoe and a rake one day to attempt to get the weeds out of the dead patch of dirt that used to be a lawn in the front, but then neighbors came and distracted me - so i have 2 piles of dead weeds and dirt, with half the "lawn" still weed-y.
ReplyDeletei pulled out a few dead bushes that line the front walk but the rest were too deeply rooted - have to remember to bring the shovel over, but not tear up the irrigation in there. there are holes in the ground where friends pulled out two dead trees by hand.
in the backyard there is a ghetto circle of flagstone that used to be lawn, and a huge hill of rock that drains right into the corner of the house.
someday the front will be gorgeously xeriscaped with blooming native bushes, and we'll have a raised bed garden in the backyard.
but first we need baseboards. lol.