Garden Centers

I didn't realize there were so many different garden centres around here, and I haven't even seen them all yet. I am enjoying visiting each one though...even if it is late in the season. I do have a pet peeve I'd like to vent about though.

As a new gardener, when I visit a garden centre and see a flower/shrub that I like...I want to see a picture of what the plant will look like when it is full grown, I want to know the name of the plant, I want to know if it's an annual or a perennial and I want to know the price!!! That doesn't seem like a lot to ask IMO...but from what I've seen at the centres I've visited so far...it seems I'm asking a little too much.

Anyway...didn't get to do as much as I'd hoped we'd do outside today because of the weather but we did manage to get a few things done and it all helps. DH was busy cutting down some of the trees that need to go. I was busy planting some of the perennials that I purchased. I'd list the names of the ones I purchased if I knew them.

Getting rid of grass...ever so slowly...

This weekend we started working on an area in the front of our property that we normally don't pay much attention to. By the end of the summer it ends up looking like the above pic. Not that attractive. So we are trying to change that. DH removed the sod from about a third of the area. We then covered it with landscape fabric. Then we threw on 5 bags of mulch. (we need more mulch...but it's a start) We had picked up some bigger rocks here and there a while ago for this area and threw them haphazardly on the mulch. It doesn't look like much right now but again...its a start.

Perennial bed renovations have begun...

Last year because our main flower bed had become so weed infested I decided to gut it out and start all over. I did manage to keep a few of the perennials that I really liked. We ordered 5 bobcats of soil and tried to raise the flower bed. Unfortunately it doesn't looked so raised out there this year.

This week I transplanted a few of my perennials that I like to the main flower bed and rooted out oodles of weeds that had grown in the bed just since the summer started. The problem I'm having is that I really don't know what's weed and what's not for most of the greenery out there. So this weekend I decided that whatever is not showing some flowery sign or whatever seems to be spreading is going out of the flower bed.

In the beginning...

our back and front yard were beautiful. Very well manicured. Lots of flowers (and no weeds) in the flower bedS. Lots of different trees, fruit trees, berry bushes etc and a few greenhouses. We have been living here since October 2004 and boy how things have changed. The previous owners obviously spent alot of time working in the garden. The garden was one of the things that sold me on this house.

I did not realize at the time how much of a pain it would be to keep the property looking as good as what it did when we first purchased it. I did not realize that my DH hated grass...we have grass in the front and back...and it isn't the easiest to mow because of all the trees and the banks. So just keeping the grass maintained is a chore in itself!!

I've decided to keep a blog about our activity in our yard in hopes that it will inspire me to keep on top of all the work.