Landscaping Home Stretch

We went hard landscaping our property end of summer/fall last year but we still had a few big jobs left before we could call it complete.  I am happy to say we are finally at the point where we were able to submit to get our $1500 landscape deposit back from our builder and from now on it will just be small projects to work on over the years!!!  Hooray.

At the start of the month T started building and staining some beautiful cedar planter boxes for my vegetables.  I wanted him to build them much higher then in the past but that required a LOT of dirt to fill them.  Luckily I was able to acquire it all from neighbors who were getting their top soil.  It required some wheel barrow/shovel work but we got it.  WR was loving every minute of it.

 We were feeling the crunch to get the boxes assembled and filled in time to seed.  I found T out here working on it while listening to his teacher lecture one night lol.  Multi tasking at its finest.

 My favorite place to visit is the greenhouse.  Something about that smell, moisture and warmth that just fills me with happy! 

 My Mom spent an afternoon helping me plant some gorgeous planters for my back and front

 WR constantly found himself covered head to toe in dirt this month!

 My mom also gave me a hand planting seeds which are now looking lush and green! (sweet peas, lots of beans, carrots, swiss chard and parsley, along with peppers in a pot)

 Our spruce tree near our front door didn't winter well even with our best efforts to wrap it.  We dug it out and replaced it with a hardier tree along with replacing and adding a few new shrubs to our front beds.

T and I spent a Saturday edging all of our back yard shrub beds, adding plants, then covering the beds with fabric and bark.  During the work day JA came out and told me there was a bird in WR's room.  I asked him if he was sure it wasn't a fly or a large bee but he was sure he had seen feathers.  A few mins later I went to look and sure enough it was a bird that had flown in the open back door.  Trying to get this bird out was a very comical half hr.  A good break from all the yard work!

 My Mom took AL during this day and set to work building the most adorable fairy garden ever.  I am in love with the garden and the girl!

 By the end of the day we had 6 shrub beds in our back yard looking beautiful.  Can't wait to see it all grow over the years.

When we moved T insisted on bringing the kids old playhouse with in pieces much to my dismay.  We finally assembled it and the boys are in love with their new "club house".  Thanks T for not listening to me ;)

 It took forever to find the tree closest to the door (a weeping white spruce) in 8ft height (builder requirement for every greens).  I searched every tree farm and nursery and found a ton at 7.5 ft lol.  We love the new addition, hard to find a tree that won't get too wide for such a tight space.

 I was enjoying every minute of our yard until a week ago when these disgusting stink bugs invaded.  One bug may not look like a big deal but image 400 per tree and hundreds in my pots of flowers and covering all my patio furniture.  I'm shocked I didn't get a pic.  I spent way too much time living a scene from a horror film as I sprayed them each night with insecticide soap and they fell off the trees all around me.........so gross.  I actually had to rip out and toss half of the contents of my beautiful flower pots in the back they were so infested and I couldn't get them under control :(

 A view looking out the window........hiding from the tiny critters that had taken over my yard.  Thankfully the spray and then a cooler snap almost cleared my yard of them.

 This past Thursday the boys got the best treat when a dump truck of 4 yards of rock showed up!  Best play place.

 T and I set to work that night getting rock down on one side behind the gate and man was it hard work.  The next day while he was at work I thought I would rip out the dead sod from the gates forward and then I thought maybe I would wheel barrow a bit of rock back.  This was one of the hardest jobs I have ever done in my life but the motivation of giving T an awesome surprise after work kept me going (thankfully the boys were happy to play all day in the rocks and then chill for a bit and watch a movie).  I was half concerned T's real surprise would be finding me dead after work lol.   Before he had left work he even joked about how he was coming home to work and that his wife was a slave driver ;)  He was in disbelief when he drove up.  Seriously so shocked when he walked in!  The funnier part was when we were eating dinner he said he would get started on the other side of the house after dinner.  He hadn't seen that it was done.  He went running out the door to take a look with pure excitement.  I would say my surprise was a success.  Helped make the complete exhaustion worth it.  I could have fallen asleep in my dinner at that point. 

We still had a pile of remaining rock so we spent yesterday adding more to the sides and window wells and replacing a bit more sod that had died thanks to the dog.  Our next door neighbors got their rock in too and sod yesterday and man does it look good out there.  (The rock is dark like the right pic just crazy crazy dusty).

Such a great feeling to only have a few minor jobs left.  We celebrated last night with a date night and a new BBQ purchase!