I have no green thumb. All the plants in our house are plastic or fabric because I kill everything. Our house had beautiful landscaping when we moved in. Three years later, it’s all weeds. Denis and I blame ourselves. But we need LOW MAINTENANCE landscaping because we’re low maintenance people. We can’t even keep the grass in good shape – our front lawn is basically clover and dandelions. No, I’m not kidding. I’ll take a picture for you tomorrow before I mow it down.
Tonight Denis looked out our kitchen window, surveying our pitiful backyard (which is just as bad as the front) and said, “Surely we can do SOMETHING with this – it’s not that big!” It’s true – our backyard here is smaller than what we had in NJ. He has decided that if we spend an hour tackling one particular project in the yard, that we can get it into decent shape.
Of course, it’s JULY when temps approach the 100s during the day, but sure, we can do it in theory. When he was dreaming of a beautiful HGTV-worthy backyard I didn’t have the heart to say, “Can we wait until it’s only in the 70s during the hottest part of the day?”
And so here’s a list, just for him, of what I consider to be small, economical close-to-one-hour projects that we can do in the backyard to make it a nice backyard that is the envy of everyone in our neighborhood (not that they’ll ever see it, but you know what I’m saying):
- 1) Get rid of all the old mulch – this would take a few hours for one person, but if TWO people did it, it could probably be done in less than two hours.
- 2) Clear out all the vines on the side of the house. We have a lot of dead vines that are EVERYWHERE. But the two of us working for one hour could probably get the worst of it out.
- 3) Clear out the ivy in the back corner of the yard and spread out that dirt mound so that it’s flat. If the ivy comes back, so be it.. I hate ivy, but if we’re gonna have it, I would prefer it NOT be on a random mound of dirt in the backyard, but in the back stretch of property that won’t grow grass AT ALL. The only negative to this is that we won’t be able to just walk to our fence and visit with the back neighbors, but we hardly see them anyway. And they’ll probably move in six months because our back neighbor has changed three times in three years. So let that ivy grow!
- 4) Use an edger to cut away the weeds from the cement patio and powerwash it. I’d actually prefer to get rid of our cement patio and pour a new one that extends beyond it’s current dimensions. My REAL druthers would be to build an enclosed sunroom, but we don’t have that kind of cash. So cutting away the weeds is the best we can do at this point.
- 5) Cleanup the landscaping along the house and side fence, and plant hardy and easy-care plants like hostas and sedums. Maybe a new peach tree since ours snapped like a twig in a storm last year. This would take MUCH longer than an hour, but if we did it in steps, it could be done and look nice.
- 6) Cleanup the landscaping in the middle of the yard and plant hardy plants that love shade since that portion of the yard NEVER sees the sun due to the trees. Again, that’s a multi-hour project, but would look nice when done.
I’d consider container planters in the backyard rather than planting in the ground. I’d also consider trying to plant a veggie garden on the left side of our yard. The former owners grew tomatoes there (which we killed), but I wonder if we could grow them as well as a couple other things as a fun project for the kids.
Anyway, I wish HGTV had more “come help the homeowner” gardening shows, but they don’t. The ones they do have require that the homeowner put up a good portion of the budget – and they prefer budgets of $10K+ for backyard projects. I don’t know about you, but if I get my hands on $2,500 it’s NOT going to go towards landscaping in the backyard!
And don’t even get me started on the front yard. We need to get up that nasty wood mulch, remove the rubber mulch to use in container gardening, get rid of the ivy that is slowing creeping back, and replace the ENTIRE LAWN because it’s a disaster.
*sigh* Remind me when the time comes to build a house that I don’t want grass of ANY kind. I want xeroscaping in the front of the house and synthetic grass in the back that only appears in certain areas. Since I’m hoping our backyard can be set up with stations (i.e., a pool, a hot tub, a trampoline, a croquet course and a horseshoe pit) there’s not a lot of need for grass of ANY kind except for on the croquet course, and synthetic would be best for that.
Man, I’m such a dreamer. *lol*
Watch out for poison ivy, etc., in those areas in back. It’s insidious and mixes in with other vines. For the grass, you might look at overseeding this fall with a hardy grass mix. Something that would thrive in your area. It’ll come in in the spring, so it’s a long term approach, but it’s cheaper than scrapping everything. If you put down a fertilizer that kills weeds, you can tidy up the front and make it better for what grass is there to spread.
Pop, thanks for the great advice. Yes, our neighbor warned us that there is poison ivy in the backyard behind the shed. We may not even tackle that area. Jaynee, can we start and do one hour of yard work together tonight? You pick the project but I say let’s pick up all the dead branches, leaves, etc that I trimmed recently so we can clear stuff out. Your call. Just one hour tonight.
Keeping up with a yard takes a lot of hard work, something that has to be kept up with on a weekly basis with the cutting and trimming. Even with the workers we have who come to cut, trim, feed and prune, I spend a considerable amount of time with upkeep in-between. We have the back deep, power-seeded every fall so that it comes back to full beauty each spring. The watering is essential, especially the containers which require it every single day! To have a yard you can truly be proud of, it takes hard, disciplined work, but how wonderful it is to also enjoy the fruit of your labor!