Mulch Day

Our weekends have been flying by.  Between catching up on chores and other obligations we just never seem to have enough time for the projects we want to tackle.  So I took a personal day on Tuesday and roped my Dad into coming down to visit me to help out with mulch day.  

We spent longer than I thought we would.  But that's because we removed some plants, planted a few new ones and the big project was changing the size of some of the mulch beds and cleaning up the edging lines.  Thankfully I had help and was able to accomplish all of it in a day!

I am always sore the day after but I always love the way fresh mulch brightens up the yard!

This bed used to end at the edge of the rock but we deepened it by a good 6 inches to give the bushes more room to grow out and to make it easier to mow around.  There was also a Golden Mop Cypress that I replaced with a Peach Flambe Coral Bells.  The Mop was too large for the spot and needed constant pruning so it would not block the hydrangea.  I like the Coral Bell much better, it provides nice color, stays low and once it grows in a bit will fill the space nicely.

 We pulled another Golden Mop Cypress out on this side and replaced it with the same type of Coral Bells.

 All of these beds were widened and evened up.

 I made room for a miniature rose plant that we were given this spring when Andy's Grandma passed.

And of course the veggie garden got a thin layer just to freshen everything up.

Winter Wonderland

We went for a walk tonight while it was snowing.  Everything looks prettier with snow.

Around The House

From the pictures I post it looks like our garden might be in our front yard, and I often get comments on it.  However our garden is in our backyard.  In the pictures you are seeing our neighbor's front yard.  We live on a corner so our backyard juts up to our back neighbor's front yard.  Are you now confused?  I took pictures around the house starting in the front to hopefully clear up some of the confusion.

Front of the house.

Going around to the side.

Side of the house.

Heading towards the back of the house.

The back end of our house and property.  The raised beds are to the left of the driveway, the beehive is straight ahead, and the in-ground garden is along the privacy fence all the way up to the house.

If you continue on down the street you can see how our garden is next to the back neighbor's front yard.  In the pictures you are seeing the front yards of the houses on this side street.

Dear Mother Nature

Dear Mother Nature,

I really enjoyed the mums when they were in full bloom but they have died and I trimmed them back so that the second crop of buds can bloom.  This week the burning bush and maple have turned beautiful, brilliant reds.  They are gorgeous!  By the time the mums have blooms again the tree and bush will be leafless.  I was hoping that somehow next year you might be able to coordinate them to be in color at the same time.  I really wanted a picturesque post card perfect Fall picture of our house.  This year I will settle for a flowerless Fall picture but I hope next year might be a little bit different. 

                                Love,
                                     Vanessa

 Actually I think it's pretty anyways!

Our Home

Those of you who know us personally are aware of Andy's career history. For those of you who just popped in Andy was a News Reporter for a couple of years and now is a Marketing Multimedia Specialist for a local company. He has many roles but one of them includes making videos for the company. So of course Andy wanted to document our first home in film.

At first I didn't want to share this video because I am actually a private person. I know, I know how could someone with a blog be private. But I can edit what goes on the blog and only let the reader in as far as I am comfortable with. A video of our house feels like giving all of you the key. But Martha has shared her homes on film so I guess I can too :) All teasing aside Andy did a great job and I am really proud of him!