Landscaping Part 786.....

Happy Belated Mother’s Day to all my mommy readers out there!  Hope you were spoiled rotten on your special day.  We had gorgeous weather here in Indy and I was hoping to get a LOT of landscaping done this weekend.

On Thursday I headed to Menards to pick up some Miss Kim Lilac bushes that were on sale for $14.88 each.   I was also on the hunt for some Knockout Rose bushes.  Meijer (supermarket) had them on sale for $12.50 each but I wanted to check Menards first while I was there.  I grabbed 3 of the Miss Kim lilac bushes (the only ones remaining) and saw that the rose bushes were $19.99 so I passed on the ones there.   As I headed over to the supermarket I looked up Lowe’s on my phone and saw that they were on special there for $9.50- which was $3 cheaper than Meijer.  Score!  So after grocery shopping I picked up 4 rose bushes from Lowe’s as well as another hanging plant on special for $5.  Here’s the back of my car after that shopping excursion.   Crazy!

First thing Saturday morning I headed outside to start planting. I added 2 of the red rose bushes to the area that I finished up last weekend. There are two Columbine plants already there next to the gas pole as well as seeds of more Columbine flowers and Aubrieta flowers. I’ve now added the 2 rose bushes towards the end of the bricked in area so once everything is established it’ll fill out a lot more. These rose bushes are considered red but are more of a hot pink than a red rose.

I also did some landscaping around the front of the bumpout where I just had two bushes replaced.  I used up some of the brick edgers that were meant for the other side of the house so I will have to replace some of those.  Here is what it looked like before.

 And here it is now with the edgers and some mulch.  Don't mind the terrible photo.  The sun was shining.  Can't get mad at that.

 I finished the front of the house where the dining room windows are.  Most of it was done a couple of weeks ago but I just needed to finish the far end.

 Oh and look!  The bushes have a little pinkish- purply flower.  How have I not realized that before?  Maybe cuz I usually hide my face in shame when pulling into my garage.  Now on to the OTHER side of the house.  Dun dun duuuuuunnnnnn.  This side is scary.

You might remember this is the side where I planted two types of tulips last November.  Shockingly they actually came up!  And they were pretty!!  I like to refer to this side of the house as my ghetto garden.  I jokingly placed some of my extra house brick around it and it stayed there for a year.  My bad neighbors.  My bad.

This is the west side of the house so it gets sun about 24 hours a day.  Literally.  I've had the grass replaced there twice and I can't keep it alive. The sun just burns the shit out of it.  My intention was to get rid of most of this patchy-burnt-poor excuse of grass.  I started out by digging up a semi-oval.  You can barely see if but it's kind of cut out.

 Then I started to dig. Then I did a little more digging. Then I broke my back and dug some more.  UGH.  I ended here on Sunday evening.

That bitch of burnt grass took for-eva to dig up.  And it was hot as balls outside.  So I called it a day.  I headed over to Wal-Mart for some more mulch and while I was there I found some of the Knockout rose bushes 50% off for $5.72 so I picked up 3 more- just of the pink ones this time.

Today after work I finished digging up the rest of that grass.

I'm sure once I get planting it'll take more shape than just a semi-oval.  At least I hope it will.  I still need to dig up the tulips and move them forward since the rose and lilac bushes are going to be the back part of the landscaping up against the house.  It'll go lilac, pink rose bush, red rose bush, lilac bush, red rose bush, pink rose bush, and lilac bush.  Then the rest of the plants and seed will come forward from there.

I was able to get one of the lilac bushes into the ground tonight.  YAY.  Unfortunately they won't bloom this year.  But at least there's some height and greenery there now!

See her all the way to the left?  They are supposed to get about 3 feet around so I made sure that I put it 2.5 feet from the foundation so there's enough room behind the bush to the house.  This is what it will eventually look like- probably next summer or the following one.  I can't wait!

Here are what the rose bushes should look like.  Obviously not this year.  But in a couple of years when it's more established they'll look like these.

Super excited!  My plan is to work some more this week after work and get more of the plants in and the tulips dug up and re-planted.  Then this weekend I can get the remaining plants and seeds in, get the entire area mulched and install the brick edgers.

Oh and Saturday is our community yard sale.  I've got a ton of stuff that I'm going to put outside.  Maybe I'll make some moolah to buy some more plants!!!