Finished Project #6

The Front Yard

I have never done much gardening and do not have a green thumb, but I decided it was time to start getting the yard back into shape. My first project was the rose bushes. My grandma loved her roses. My cousins did a great service by pulling out all of the rose bushes in the back garden area a few years ago. They were altogether too hard to take care of. During the summer, Nick and I did our best to keep the roses in the front yard trimmed back, and stop a major aphid infestation, but they still looked pretty wild.

I forgot to take before pictures, but it was pretty sad looking. The roses were tall and scraggly, the black weed guard fabric was ripped to shreds, allowing weeds to spring up like crazy (especially along the house where it's impossible to weed once the roses are growing tall).

Nick was a gem and cut the roses bushes back. I then ripped up all the gross weed-infested fabric and mulch. I ripped all the weeds I could get my fingers on, faced several of the longest, fattest worms I've ever seen - seriously 10 inches long and as thick as one of those huge pixie stick straws - YUCK!

I evened out the soil, sprinkled some compost and rose fertilizer on top, covered it with new weed-guard fabric and new bark. While I was doing that work, Nick was fixing up the solar lights that were no longer working.

The results still look rather dismal and really brown, but I'll post again once the roses start blooming!
There were a ton of crocus bulbs spreading, so I pulled them out and transplanted them to add some green. Hopefully they will survive the somewhat rough transplant and still bloom. After the frost, I'll plant some annuals for color during the summer months.