Before:
(With bushes, and snow)

After:
(Bush free and summery)

We did a similar job at our house in Clear Lake. The shrubs in front of our porch there were getting dead spots and were kind of preventing us from keeping the rest of the area around the house clean, so we decided to cut them out too.

Before:

During:

After:

Obviously, we have more clean-up to do now that the bushes are gone. We’re going to dig out the stumps and clear all the weeds out, then plant some new flowers there.

In the back yard in Des Moines we’ve got a bunch of trees that were volunteer saplings many years ago and have now grown to be total pests. We’re gathering quotes this week to see what it will cost to have them removed, as well as what it will take to have the big catalpa tree between our house and the neighbor’s taken out. I’ve got a good recommendation for what kind of tree to replace it with, so that will be a big change coming up sometime.

And while I’m talking about future plans I might as well list out some other things we have coming in the (hopefully) near future.

• Reshingle the roof
• Repair the front steps
• Tear out sidewalk blocks & have a new one poured
• Paint the back wall of the house
• One more coat of paint on the rest of the house
• Build a shed on the old garage slab

Phew! That’s a long list. Better get to work then!

Here it is, folks, straight from the back yard at Our New Old House: poison ivy. This lovely specimen is growing on my neighbor’s fence.

We all know the warning “leaves of three, leave it be” but there are so many plants that have groupings of three leaves. Notice the asymmetrical points on the edges of these leaves. That’s how you tell it’s poison ivy. Also, the stems are red and the main stalk or vine has little hairs on it. So use this picture to compare to plants in your yard if you’re not sure.

Garden safely!

• Install gutter apron (PRIORITY ONE, ASAP)
• Finish landscaping wall
• Transplant hostas and ferns
• Make kindling bundles out of the sticks in the backyard
• Borrow a chainsaw and cut the logs that are too big for the wood burning stove
• Finish the shed or at the very least gather all the pieces and move them inside

Let’s see how many of these I can finish before the first snow.

[tags]wood burning stove, gutters, yardwork, retaining wall, landscaping, future plans[/tags]

We’re going to tear this gate and fence out at some point anyway, so I wasn’t worried that I couldn’t find the key to that lock. But one day I was going down the basement stairs and the light was just right and something caught my eye:

It’s a Master brand key. I haven’t taken it down to see if it fits the lock yet, but it’s nice to know it’s there.

[tags]yardwork, previous owners, photos[/tags]

Meanwhile, I’ve begun building a wall myself! I’m afraid I’ll be pretty embarassed when my uncle, the landscape architect comes over to take a look at it, but it’s my first try so there’s lots of room for improvement. I don’t really know what I’m doing.

[tags]photos, landscaping, yardwork, retaining wall[/tags]

[tags]yardwork, photos, lilac, bushes[/tags]

Spring is in full swing around here and I’ve got the photos to prove it!

I don’t have much time for gardening this summer, so in the places where there have been unsightly weeds growing, I just dug up the ground and sprinkled a bunch of random wildflower seeds. We moved into this house at the end of summer last year so we never got to see what kinds of things would come up in the springtime. Not really knowing what would come up, or if they even would, I’ve been gratified to find that there are actually some sprouts coming up! It’s nice to know that my touch does not automatically mean death to all plants, just indoor ones. (I can’t seem to keep houseplants alive!)

I’m trying to remember just what I planted where, so if you notice my identification of certain sprouts is off, please don’t mock me too harshly.

These two flower pots were left behind by the previous owner. They were growing some pretty serious weeds when we moved in last fall, so I just cleaned them out and planted marigolds and alyssum.

Some ferns came up in one of the front flower beds, and I like ferns, so I let them stay. They seem pretty happy there.

Anybody know what this tall, shooty thing growing in my back yard is? It’s probably a weed, but it just looked so different from all the other weeds that I thought it might be something important.

There’s a good chance that some of that undergrowth is poison ivy.  I haven’t been itching from walking through there yet, but lots of people in this neighborhood have mentioned having poison ivy sprouting up in their yards.  My mom got a horrible outbreak last year when she was clearing some dead grape vines and there was some poison ivy intertwined with them.

I’m blogging like a crazy person this week, so check back often for more photos!

[tags] yardwork, photos, weeds, ferns, marigold, flower pots, wild flowers, poison ivy[/tags]

First off, I’ve got a shot of what will soon be my very own vegetable garden! Well, ok, it’s not all mine. My friend Lars is a gardener who grows much of the food he and his wife eat through the year. He was telling me about all the veggies he wants to crowd into his back yard this year and I thought, hey I’m not using my back yard right now! He can grow some in mine! So he and Christa came over and while Lars and I dug up the ground out back, Christa cooked us an amazing dinner of vegetarian shepherd’s pie and roasted asparagus.

More pictures coming soon!
[tags]vegetables, vegetable garden, gardening, photos, yardwork[/tags]

• zucchini
• pole beans
• various squash
• leeks
• carrots
• kale
• lima beans

Meanwhile the flowers I planted a few weeks ago have sprouted.  Pictures of those coming soon too.  I love spring!

[tags] yardwork [/tags]

I focused on the fence line along the alley.

Before:

After:

More Before:

More After:

Zoot watched through a new storm window.

I found a stick with four snails on it. Can you see all four of them?

Here’s a closeup:

There was a dried out puff ball mushroom left over from last fall.

I stepped on it to help Nature along. Fungi are a very important part of the ecosystem and they get a bad rap.

While I was walking through the yard I found evidence of violent warfare!

Not very threatening when you put it in perspective, though.

This tree has grown around this rock.

Wish I knew what kind of plant this was. Anybody know?

The east side of Des Moines has an awesome system of alleys. Here’s the view north up our alley:

And south down our alley:

I did not take a before picture of that one, but notice how clean the fence line looks after I got rid of all the dead sticks and weeds.

I’m so glad spring is finally here!

[tags]yardwork, trees, photos, alley, weeds[/tags]