Side yard work

Wow, the amount of work just for this little section.  Phew!!  Here's the before:

And after!

Okay, not looking like much of a difference but wow did I get rid of a lot of creeping bellflowers and Lily of the Valleys! 

So first, I had to clear out an area to make way for a path to the telephone box and electric meter.  I'm not sure if anyone has actually been to either one, but just in case!

I told Bobby to bring these crescent-shaped pavers up to the steps but did he really have to block the entire pathway?!

Actually bumped my knee trying to avoid these pavers and totally broke skin through my jeans. Sheesh!

Okay, pathway cleared:

The shape of these pavers are pretty unique. I've never worked with them before.  Hmmm, interesting!

I think this might work??

Now to clear up the rest of the slope and I've used the pavers to create borders around the plants.  I think it looks okay.  The circles are definitely cute :-)

Definitely looking better than what it was before:

Next round of sand, gravel, and rocks.  This is definitely a workout!

Okay, I ran out of those crescent pavers but found some bricks in the garage.  Figured I need a path of some sort when I have to water the plants:

After contemplating a little bit as I didn't like the way the bricks looked, I swapped them out with the other crescent pavers that I had used previously for the path.  There - much better!

And yup, mo' better! I will have to fill in those gaps with either sand and/or more gravel:

After 2 afternoons of working on this side yard, I actually lost 2lbs.  Ha!

And now to work on this one lower section.  Sooooo many of the same creeping bellflowers and lilies.  When will this ever stop!  I did just read up on it and looks like it's best to make sure the plants don't reseed. That's one thing we weren't paying attention to - letting nature take its course. So I guess it's really our own doing with this plant invasion??? We'll have to pay better attention this year!

I'm smothering as much as I can with newspaper:

So, I didn't get to take a before photo.  But there was a crawling Hydrangea right against this wall. And since we've moved here, I never knew what it was until just a couple of days ago.  Thank goodness for these Apps on the phone that can identify plants!  I thought it was going to be a tough chore to dig it up, but Graham was able to dig it up with a few good digs with the big shovel.

And now, just prepping this spot where it's going to call its new home.  I'm going to put the trellis right next to the downspout and hopefully that's where the hydrangea will cling on to.  And if it does go up the brick wall, we'll just have to keep and eye on it and make sure it doesn't hurt the brick:

I went to pick up some rocks too for this little section:  

So Bobby think I overpaid for the rocks, but I don't think he realizes how expensive rocks can be!  Anyway, I think it was a good bargain because the guy even carried the bucket and unloaded it into the truck.  He also laid down a doggy pee-sheet so my trunk doesn't get dirty. So I say, win-win!

I didn't realize how tricky it was to arrange these rocks.  I guess we should have picked out flatter ones, but it is what it is now:

And I think the creeping Hydrangea will be happier here in this corner.  I've never seen it flower before so maybe it will this year?

And I've picked one MacDaddy stone for this project and it's the perfect perch for our Yoga Frog. Yay! There are cracks in our frog so that's another thing on my to-do list.  Never-ending list.  Aaahhhh!!!

There's still one more section on the top full of this section that has lots of creeping Bellflowers and Lilies.  I'm hoping to level it out and put a raised bed there.  I found 4 raised beds by the edge of the property near the firewood.  So exciting! Anyway, hope to plant some leafy veggies since this area does not get a lot of sun.  That's the plan for now, at least.

And hope to see some blooms on the peonies that I bought last year.  And also on this one other plant which I have no idea what it is now.  But at least it's seems to be growing and is happy.  More photos to come once everything blooms (let's hope)!