The other day I mowed the lawn for the first time since I was kid...with a push mower on an acre and a half! That was quite a workout, and I only finished about a third of the lawn; I was out there for three hours. According to MyFitnessPal I burned over 1,000 calories! Not sure how accurate this is, but I'll take it. No, I didn't go and eat a thousand calories worth of food.
My pet project is now getting the garden in order. It's a patch of land in the middle of the backyard that has a small man-made pond and a stone wall. I didn't bother with it last year since we were getting moved in and had a lot of fires to put out. This year, though, I want to make it look nice.
I'm not a gardener and in the past have never had the inclination to do any gardening. Wait, that's not true. I did, but I would go gung-ho, buy a ton of plants, start planting, and then fizzle out halfway through. And I'd end up killing whatever I planted. Except hostas. Those things cannot be killed by any means whatsoever. But now that I've lost weight and have a beautiful year, I want to make the garden look nice. (Thankfully the house was landscaped pretty nicely when we bought it, so I don't have to worry about planting shrubs.)
I haven't done any weeding, mainly because there's so much grass in there it would take forever. My plan is to add in some ground cover plants so they'll spread and eventually, maybe, choke out the grass. I've already put in some creeping phlox and two green ground cover plants. I've also planted a few other things. There are already daffodils and tulips in there from the previous owner, so I'm happy about that. It's bordered by natural stones, but I'll need to add some more. Probably around the ferns in the front. Bulbs will be planted in the Fall.
The look I want to go for is natural and somewhat wild, but contained. Contained by natural stones, that is. I don't want it to be manicured. I haven't done research yet, but I'm guessing it would have been a more natural look at the time the house was built (1735).
Anyone have any ideas for me? Any gardeners out there?
Here are some pics I took today. Ignore the metal in some pictures; we lost our canopy to the wind last week and didn't take it apart it yet. Click on the pictures to make them bigger.
Side of the house, looking out to the street.
Side of the house, looking out to the front.
Back yard. Apple trees!
The barn. We think it's original. We can see the ax marks where the beams were cut.
Driveway.
Garden. It looks pretty wild, but there are some nice plants in there. Ignore the broken gazebo frame.
Side of the house. We have an awesome patio. :)
Stone wall in front of the house.
Side yard, looking out to the small pond.
Two geese and their babies at the pond, :) They're so cute!!
Pond in the garden. It really needs a pump!
Garden up close.
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