Curb Appeal

So up until recently I've been working mostly on my backyard and not very much on the front.  But it's the front yard that everyone else actually sees, so I decided to jump on adding some curb appeal during my week off.  One area that has always bugged me is the lawn to the West of my driveway as it is 90% weeds and 10% dead grass (not attractive) so I decided to take at least one step towards fixing that.  My mailbox area was of the same story, so I figured I could just dig it all up and replace the weeds with a flower garden to make it look a lot better, and I wouldn't have to mow that pointless little area (BONUS!).

I wish I had taken a before picture, but just know that it looked exactly like the area directly above it in most of these pictures, plus a baby tree growing in front of my mailbox.

At first I dug up all the weeds and just tilled the Earth and was planning on leaving it like that for the sake of simplicity.

Wasn't going to cut it

But after sleeping on it I realized that just a few more steps would mean a lot less headaches (weeds) in the future, so it was worth it to put in the extra effort.  I dug up several inches of dirt and roots from my neighbor's tree.  Here you can see the edger I put into the ground to prevent grass and weeds from creeping into the new flower bed.

The next step is a little weird and caught the attention of my mailwoman, but I've tried it in my backyard and it works very well.  Newspapers when wet and covered work just as well as landscaping fabric at blocking existing weeds or grass from growing out of any leftover roots.  AND newspapers will eventually decompose into the earth.  This won't prevent me from ever having weeds, but if I left any grassroots or weed roots in there they won't be growing back.

After that I got some free compost from the landfill which you can read more about here.  I filled my entire truck and it was barely enough!

After throwing that in and making sure the middle was slightly raised from the edges to ensure proper drainage, I covered it with mulch before deciding what to plant in it.

Even without plants the curb appeal is already much better!!

Free Compost in Lincoln

Now this was my greatest discovery of the past week, and I owe it to the Crowder family for telling me about it.  You can get free compost (and great compost at that) from the city landfill at the 48th Street Transfer Station.  Now I wasn't able to confirm this online on the landfill's website, but it exists!  It's sort of annoying that they don't mention it online because it's a great service.  So that's why I'm mentioning it now to hopefully help some other curious person who doesn't want to pay for dirt.  When I went there they gave me a brochure with some information so I'll let their words explain it for you:

Just bring a shovel and get to work!

It's that time of year!

As my neighborhood Ace puts together their Garden Center I just keep getting more and more excited to spend some time outside, Spring is HERE!

... I hope...
I mean, we've had mother nature fool us a couple times already so I'm proceeding with some caution here...

But warm weather does mean I can get back out into the backyard and continue to improve on my flower bed and create a warm, inviting back patio where I will likely spend most of my summer grilling and relaxing away.  Unless of course it's like last summer and it's over 100 degrees everyday, in which case I'll likely be inside in the air conditioning...

And now for an update!

Last summer I neglected my backyard due to the drought and the heat, and I developed quite the crab grass problem in the center of my flower bed.  Not really knowing how to get rid of it, I dug up all of it including a lot of dirt (I didn't want to leave any roots in there) and replaced it with some new top soil just the other day.

There'a a beautiful view of the crab grass from last year

And there lies my problem. No mulch invites crab grass

It has taken me two whole summers to realize that I need to have my entire flower bed well covered with mulch throughout the entire season to prevent weeds, so that is something I hope to keep on top of this year.  I also tried something new when I replaced the soil.  I put down several layers of newspaper in the area that I had dug up as I have heard it prevents weeds from growing by acting a lot like landscape fabric.  I then covered it with just about an inch of soil and then with mulch, so I'll be reporting on whether or not that works.

Also, the crab grass sort of killed out a lot of the plants I had in the center of my flower bed so I'll need to add quite a few more plants this summer.  Another thing I've read is that if there is no room for weeds, there won't be any weeds... So I plan on packing the flowers in quite a bit this spring.

Stay tuned!

It's That Time of Year Again...

Yes, that's right the blog is back!  And I was so addicted to growing things, that in the winter when my garden was on hold I grew this bad boy!

Oh Yea!

Alright, as cool as beards are lets get back to the garden... I realize now that I completely neglected posting pictures of my garden as it grew the rest of the summer last year (perhaps mostly because I didn't weed it nearly enough, oops), but now I can't help but show how much bigger the plants are!

Just look at that butterfly bush! 

These things are pretty cool!

Another view to show the size of the butterfly bush 

One of the new guys!

Close up on a hummingbird flower

And the white one as well

Just compared to my last post which was 11 months ago there is a night and day difference, so I can't wait to see how much the garden grows this summer.  As you can see, one of the plants grew very large (the butterfly bush in the smaller garden) and many of the others are a lot bigger than they were even at the end of last summer.  In fact those tall plants with the bell shaped flowers didn't even bloom last year, so this year they were quite the surprise!

However, there is some bad news... a couple of the plants didn't quite make it and aren't back this year.  About 3 have left some gaps in the bigger garden, and none of the plants up front survived. :/  But, I planted some seeds of lavender in one of the bigger gaps in the big garden so we'll see if that sprouts up at all.   I've never tried to plant with seeds yet!  And I got some hostas for the front of the house so those should do very well as it's a pretty shaded area.  Also filling up some of the gaps are some little guys that have sprouted up from the seeds of one of the taller flowers I have, you can see a picture of one of them above.  There are a TON of them!

Side of the backyard along the fence

WAY back of the backyard

All of the trees taking over... 

Hopeful site of a raised vegetable garden!

There are still a lot of projects I never got around to from last year that I hopefully will be able to complete this summer, as well as some new projects to do!  As you can see from one of the pictures above, I hope to create a raised vegetable garden in the corner of my yard near my peonies.  Also, I would like to dress up the side of my yard shown in one of the other pictures above.  Possibly just plant some hostas and whatnot as it is a very shaded area, maybe find some colorful plants that thrive in the shade.  One of the bigger projects this summer will be to clear out the area in the far back of my backyard as right now it is just storage of the dead trees and the bush I cut up last year and has been overgrown by trees as well.  Hopefully I can clear all of that out and plant some things that will thrive in that shady area as well.

Inspiration for my pergola

Obviously the biggest project yet to be completed is the pergola/lattice structure/umbrella/shelter/whatever I have promised in the past.... As much as this project has changed should show how indecisive I am in what I want to put up as a structure over the patio.  But I had a stroke of genius/inspiration not too long ago and now I think I know what I WANT to do, so we'll see if this actually happens.  What I have envisioned is a pergola that is open around the edges (like a regular pergola) so the vine I have can grow around the wood and create some shade.  But in the middle I would want to do some sort of rain shelter, so I would put some sort of bamboo shade up with a clear corrugated plastic over the top of it to create a cheap roof that would still provide both rain protection and shade.  I should have scanned my drawing of said structure, but I posted a picture of my inspiration for it.

So what should you look forward to seeing in future posts???
- Pictures of my plants as they bloom later in the summer
- Perhaps some pictures of the hostas in the front of the house
- The cleaning out of the far back of the backyard
- Maybe some new plants along the fence
- VEGETABLE GARDEN!! (I'm excited about that one.  Can't wait to grow some peppers!)
- And maybe, just maybe... FINALLY a post about a pergola going up... but we'll see.  I need some $$$$ first.

Adieu.

Much Needed Update (furniture edition)

Oh Yeah babe.

Flowers are a-bloomin!

Forgot the pillows.... :P

Here's the whole set visible

Just to let you guys see the night ambiance...

The firepot is probably my fav.

Close up of the awesome stepping stones!

No more blank wall!!

    Alright!  Well... it's been awhile since I last blogged about the yard and it's progress.  Many of you have seen it already, but for those of you who haven't I thought I'd give you an update.  Thanks to THE Mike Anderson, I now have some patio furniture. (Hell yeah Craigslist! :])  It's a very nice set too and I'm really pleased with it!  Mike was a very nice guy too.  Also, I went out and splurged a little bit on cool stuff like torches and some path lights, and a FIREPOT!  It burns gel, so it's pretty sweet.  I'm not sure if I ever updated about the giant stumps I got for seating around the fire pit, but they are noticeable in a few of these pics.  What else is there?  Oh yea, I just installed the lattice on the wall.  It definitely looks a lot better than a plain white wall.  And there are some vines already growing their way up.
    I've had to do a few complete overhauls on the two garden spaces to get weeds out of 'em, but I think they're pretty set for now... The plants are doing pretty well as you can see from a few of the pictures!  They are no longer little babies.  BUT, I am not done with this project yet!  Oh yes, there will be more to come this summer! Bwahahahaha! *ehm...*

My future plans include:
-Making a lattice structure that covers (and shades) the loveseat.  There is a vine growing next to it that will help cover it very nicely.
-Probably getting an umbrella to help shade the rest of the seats.
-Also, potentially making a nice little garden area along the back fence by clearing out all the junk that is back there now.

I know, you might be thinking... "Logan! What about the pergola??" or... "What about that gazebo idea?"  Nope and Nope.  I have decided to make a SMALL covering.  This way I get the best of both worlds.  A nice firm structure that has the ability of sporting vines.  AND the nice full sun coverage of a canopy.  In this case, an umbrella.  It's genius, I know.  I'm happy about it.  I'll probably start the lattice structure soon, as that vine needs something to cling to quick.  Soooooo, STAY TUNED! :]]

Finished Fire Pit!!!!

Oh yea!  Finished off the fire pit the other day and also got some MASSIVE stumps for sitting, and made a little bench.  All seating options were free, which is the best part of all. :]  I still wouldn't call this entire project "finished" per se, but it's definitely 100% usable now!  I'm still debating on whether or not I want to do like a rock/stone paving all the way around the fire pit...  But for now it'll stay like this and I'll focus on getting some solar powered lights to line the path with and possibly some stepping stones going through the path as well.

Many more things to come! ... But it might be break time before I begin on any of those other projects.  Running low on energy and draining my wallet... :P

HOLY STORM!?

Bracing my babies for the storm.... If we get a tornado I'm gonna be pissed!!

Finished Gardens!!

Hey!  Here are my finished gardens! I'm pretty pleased with them, especially now that they are mulched. :] And mulch will help keep the soil moist and improve the health of my plants!  Now keep in mind that these gardens aren't going to be all that impressive for a while... I'll continue to feed them miracle grow throughout the summer in hopes that they flourish, but hey this is still just a start.  Hopefully if none of them get stomped on or die, it should all grow back even bigger and better next spring!  I'm pretty excited about it! :]

If you liked these blog posts, don't worry!  Because there will still be other work done in my yard and more things to update! Yayyyy! :]

Other things I hope to finish yet:
-Fire Pit!
-Add forms of seating around the fire pit.
-Dig out grass behind these perennials further in my backyard and mulch it.
-Cut down the trees from inside my hedge and trim the hedge.
-Add some solar powered lights to front and backyard gardens, and elsewhere in backyard.
-Put some stepping stones in the walkway between gardens.

Front Gardening

Well this is less climactic than it ought to be.... Here I'm showing what the little garden in my front lawn looks like.  I didn't have "before" pictures, but it was pretty darn ugly before.  I still want to add mulch to it, which will help improve this new look even more.  The plants I put in should get big pink and white flowers on them once they bloom so it should be an attractive yard if I can ever kill the dandelions in the grass!

I did get the larger area garden in the backyard finished today, but unfortunately it was too dark by then and the pictures didn't quite turn out so I'll have to post some tomorrow.  The mulch makes such a big difference in both backyard gardens, although I could use just a little bit more.  So tomorrow hopefully I can just go grab a bag of mulch and fill up the backyard gardens and spread it through this front one shown and will be able to share the final results with everyone!

I might even get the bricks for the fire pit tomorrow and knock it all out at once, this entire project is just about finished!  Now for the rest of the yard's plans I'll have to wait until I work some more and get enough money to buy lumber for the pergola, but until then I'll keep myself busy with other smaller projects.  I still need to pull the grass out from the cracks in the patio and I can also work on getting rid of the weeds on the side of my house that nobody sees. ... And those darn trees in my hedge!!

Anyways, I'm excited to post pictures of the gardens tomorrow!  And hopefully they'll grow to be gorgeous by the end of the summer and especially when they come back up next spring! :]

First Little Garden

Alright! We have our first sign of life in my backyard! :]

I enlisted Ashley as my "lady's touch" assistant in helping me choose plants and place them in good places in the little garden.  I have plenty more plants purchased, but I need to bury the black edger around the bigger garden and then put the rest of the plants in still.

Once all of that is finished, I'll put some mulch down over both garden areas and should be able to get to work on the bricking of the fire pit.  And then hopefully I can get some solar powered lights to line the path with and place throughout my backyard.

You may notice a pole stabbed into my fire pit... And thats because I figure I'll use it to poke super deep holes in the base of it to help rain water and whatever soak deeper into the soil and never pool up inside of it. Can't hurt right???

Today I am working on my front yard's little garden and the bigger garden.  Hopefully I'll have some more finished projects to post by the end of the night!!

(Ashley is in the picture because she wanted to show off her pretty new sun dress to everybody...)

Garden Digs

Well as you can see, the whole garden and fire pit thing is really starting to come together.  With the help of Mateo, Cuong and Dallas (and Herbie :P) we dug up the grass from the areas that I want to put the gardens and dug a hole for the fire pit.  The holes were dug just deep enough to completely remove the grass so it won't ever return, and the fire pit hole is a good 6 inches deep or so.  I had some old rocks just lying around in my shed, so I figured those would make a great base for the fire pit so it never really gets muddy.  And decided to dig up the grass around the edge of it so there would be an even surface to put the bricks/stones/whatever that I want to surround it with.  

Those stones you see in the walkway between the gardens were just found hidden underneath the grass close to my house, I just threw them there to get them out of the way, but perhaps I could do some neat little walkway with stepping stones like that...  All that's left to do now is get some black plastic edger to border the garden areas, and fill them back up with some top soil, put some gorgeous perennials in there for a low maintenance garden and put some mulch on top!  Then, with the fire pit, all I need is to build up around it with bricks or something and get some solid seating around it.  Should look pretty legit when it's all said and done.

Stump Removal

So yesterday Mateo and I were able to completely remove the stump from a very old and very big evergreen bush. (and a bonus tree that was growing next to it too)  It was a tough project and we had to dig about 3 feet down all around that bad boy, and when we found main roots we hacked them off with an ax.
...pretty sure they'll just die in the ground...
Then, to help us hoist it out of the ground we used this iron rod that I have to get some leverage to snap, twist and pull that thing out of there.  I forgot to take a picture of the hole we had to dig around it... but anyways, I took a picture of all the roots and stump left in there and of the final smooth surface.

Step 2 is today, where we are going to just dig off the top layer of the grass so it won't grow back anymore and set a foundation for my new garden areas throughout the yard.  Then sometime after that (maybe in a few days) I'll get some garden liner, and some fancy soil to make a perfect gardening spot.  And then it just comes down to putting some plants and wood chips in em!

New Directions

No, not the music group from Glee. (Although I do really love that show...)

But I am referring to this blog page instead. I think I'm going to make this blog entirely about my house projects over the summer. Just an amateur's account of what I try that works, and what I try that fails. So, stay tuned for possible strokes of genius! And perhaps (more likely) things that you'll want to avoid at all costs.

My To-Do List for this summer:

-Probably organizing the junk in my basement and making it a cooler hangout place

-Creating a new garden space in my backyard up by my house

-Create another "garden-like" space further into my backyard, I'm thinking a birdbath...

-and the BIG ENCHILADA = Build a Pergola that interacts with the first garden

-Create a fire-pit area a bit out into my backyard that has a neat intended path from said Pergola

.... Basically just make a killer backyard hangout space where friends can gather to chill, drink, and grill out in a beautiful and nice setting.

Let's see how I do. I'll try to post before and after pics along the way. First step... digging a dang stump out of the ground and cutting down some pesky trees from my hedge.

(pictured above)

Foooood!

So, lately I've taken a keen interest on food, and more specifically how much fat and protein is in everything. Also, Shnee and I just got groceries!! So that factors in a bit here too. Haha. Anyways, my plan for the next few weeks is to, along with working out daily, to fill myself up with peanut butter and milk every night before I go to bed. They both are high in protein (and fat, respectively) so that will hopefully aid me in gaining weight in a good way. Also, I will then wake up and eat me a bunch of scrambled eggs (high in protein as well) and try to eat a couple eggs after each workout. Then to round it all out, have chicken for dinner on most nights. (high in PROTEIN) Mmmmmm, I will definitely be liking this diet a lot!! Yessir.

Just to be cheesy and lame

So, I thought I'd be really lame and do a post about Ashley. I mean, yea... She's kinda cool I guess. Plus, I thought that first picture of us is pretty cute/funny. We have grown up quite a bit since we've known each other. Haha. Look how little and cute we were!!! Anywho.... The reason I decided to be all corny and lame and REALLY cheesy is because today is like our One Month or something? Not like I would really know if it was or not.... But, yea it's cool.

Just wanna put it out there, that although I make a lot of jokes (like making a "Being more clever than your girlfriend" fan page on facebook. lol.) I really do think you're pretty amazing Ashley. ;] There better be plenty more of these __ Month "anniversaries" that we go through babe. I really don't think I could have asked for a better person to be with than you.

EATS!!!!

Made some pretty awesome eats tonight after I got off of work!!! Toll House Chocolate Chip Lovers cookies! Yummm... Which I definitely am a chocolate chip lover!! :] Shnee got pretty damn excited about them too. Lol. I didn't plan on making them tonight, but just couldn't resist when I saw them just sitting there in the fridge. Like a cute little kid that you just want to pick up.... and put in the oven? No, not a good comparison. But you can't resist picking up a little kid though!! Just like I couldn't resist making these!!!

And eating them too!!! Haha.. 5 down already and they just got done right before I typed this up! :P