Weekend Yard Work

Originally we were supposed to go camping this weekend, but Bishop ended up with an infected gland that required meds and regular flushing if the infected gland, so we decided camping and being in the dirt all weekend was not a great option for him.

Since the weather was beautiful we took advantage of it and got a bunch of new plants. Mark had spent the last few weeks creating a plant-able border around the upper yard, putting landscape fabric down to keep out the weeds, and getting it all ready for plants. We spent Friday night and some time Saturday buying plants and figuring out where we wanted them to go.

I have to say Mark had the hard part and that was digging the holes. We have rock hard soil and some of the holes required him to use a pick ax to loosen up the dirt enough so he could use a shovel. While he was doing that I was planting flowers and decorative plants in pots that needed to be filled.

It was a nice weekend and Bishop is doing much, much better!

Mark starting in on the first hole that the Japanese Maple would go into.

This is just a shot to give an idea of the boarder Mark created and the space we need to fill with plants.

Another shot of the boarder and space that needs filled.

Nice but shot!

The Japanese Maple in it's new home. We have had that thing in a big pot for a little over 5 years. Let's just say there were a lot of roots!

This is another plant we have had in a big pot for over 5 years and just never had a good spot to plant it in the ground. I have been a big advocate for this plant (it is not Mark's favorite) so I was glad I was able to talk him into planting it for me!

Some ferns we got for under the trees. There is nothing but shade so had to go with plants the will do will with very little sunlight.

One of the miniature rhododendron's we got! Mark has always said NO rhododendron's in the yard, but the guy at the nursery we went to helped convince him that not all of them are huge with sticky flowers. I'm so excited to have not one but three miniature rhododendron's for the yard! The other two have yet to be planted...still deciding on placement and building up strength for the hole digging!

I don't remember what these two plants are, but they have the most beautiful variegated leaves! The leaves start out a dark green, go to a light green, and end up a pretty red color. They don't lose their leaves so will look wonderful year round!

We still have a lot of ground cover, decorative grass, and a few plants to plant, but we have made a great start. Once everything is planted we will cover the empty space with mulch and at that point if there are any gaping holes to fill will get more plants as needed. We don't really want it to be crammed with plants though. It has to be easy to maintain as we are gone almost every other weekend visiting friends, camping, and whatever else fun we come up with to do.