Yard Work

It was unseasonably cool in Missouri this weekend.  And perfect.  Last year it was already in the upper 80s and 90s.  Sunday it was like 72.  Perfect for yard work.  If you can imagine, our yard still needs tons of work to recover from the old owners neglect.  We are finally whipping it into shape.  And I think we have a plan.

We have flower beds that line the east side of our house.  To the left of the kitchen door there are shrubs.  I have a serious hatred for these shrubs.  They suck.  There was a dead one right in the middle when we bought the ho use.  We've totally chopped out the dead shrub so now there's just this little gnarly stump.  Not attractive at all.  The ultimate plan is to rip out the old shrubs and put something different in.  Probably some other kind of bush that is hardier.  I guess the old ones are fairly hardy, they are original to the house, they're just in bad shape.

To the right of the kitchen door are flower beds that stair step down to our lower patio.  The top one is filled with lava rock and used to have a tree growing in it.  Technically the tree is still there, I just keep cutting off the live parts and spraying it with weed killer.  I am obviously good at landscaping.  Want me to come to your house?  Eventually, I'm going to rip the whole tree out.  Then the plan is to put in hydrangea bushes.  If they'll live on the east side?  Hydrangeas are my favorite, we had a whole row of them on the north end of our house when I was a kid.

(source)

I'd like to plant other things in the other two flower beds, I just don't know what.  I think this summer we're planting our zucchini there.  Yes, you read that right, zucchini.  We're not big gardeners and there's already good dirt there.  I'm totally okay with this.  I need zucchinis in my life, especially right outside my door.

We also have plans to redo our front side walk.  It's completely crumbled.  That's what the pavers stacked beside our garage are for. 

This will also mean replacing the stairs the lead down to the back yard.  We're thinking making the edge of the stairs out of something like a parking curb and just replacing the crumbling concrete with gravel.  And maybe some cute edging.  This will also mean redoing the flower bed edging.  Right now it's wood that is rotting.  And that our dog so sweetly has partially ripped out.

The last big landscaping dream is to add some sort of bushes in the back yard.  We have a stone wall the separates the yards and is a huge step down.  We want to add some bushes on the upper level of that so that no one accidentally falls over the ledge.  It's a good couple of feet down and would definitely hurt.  There is also a clump of trees growing right behind the rock wall that we need to rip out before they ruin the wall.  Even though they provide amazing shade on the deck.  

I also still have plans to build a fence around the a/c unit to make it more attractive.

So, what did you guys do this weekend?  Anybody else have big yard overhaul plans?  Or have cheap suggestions of how to pretty up my yard?  This weekend I had quality time with the weed killer while my husband mowed, weed ate (?) and trimmed trees.  It's looking so much better and I can't wait to get more done on it.  I almost bought my first hydrangea plant but the price was mismarked and I am cheap.