Yard Work

The weather has been challenging this year. Winter hung on with a vengeance. A lot of people lost early crops and some perennials were killed off by the late frosts. To top it off, there was very little in the way of "Spring." Full-on summer came blazing in, bringing more destruction of delicate plants.

We happened to be out of state during "Spring" so I've been forced to do my annual Spring landscaping in pretty unforgiving weather. I'm trying to water a lot and just hope that everything survives until the relief of Fall.

I started with the front of the house where I planted a couple of extra hostas and a Lungwort.

[caption id="attachment_4575" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Hostas[/caption]

2 years ago, when I first planted hostas here, my neighbor told me to leave plenty of room between them because they'd get very big very fast. I did so, and while they have been healthy and the deer have let them be, they weren't growing in as much as I'd hoped. There were so big gaps. I decided to add 2 hostas to fill things in. They can always be divided in the future!

In that same bed, panning over to the left, there was this huge bare spot. I had a yard of dirt, so I dumped a bunch in the corner to build it up a bit, and then I planted the Lungwort. It's supposed to get about 24-28 inches wide so it should fill in that space really well in a year or so.

I also tackled the right side of the house. I've been avoiding this side because there's a ton of ivy to pull out and it's a lot of work. Here's what I started with:

Over the course of a few days, I pulled out all of the ivy dumped a bunch of good dirt down, and planted/transplanted several plants. Three ferns, a crepe myrtle that's looking iffy, a peony bush that needed more sun, and a laurel.

Most of this area is perpetual shade, but toward the back corner, it gets a good bit of sun so I had to pay attention to where that change is and plant accordingly.

I'll post better pictures once I get mulch down, which will hopefully be soon.