Pass it on, where they bring a shovel and a lot of buckets, continues

I had 30-40 short purple irises in one of the backyard beds, where most do not bloom. I think not enough sun. (I have the same plants in a front bed that bloom just fine).

I also had 25 or so, white bee balm, that had crossed the line of their half of the bed. 

And I had two clematis starts in the wrong place. 

I messaged one of the woman who was here for Grape Hyacinths a few weeks ago. She has been here previously, she is a good digger. 

She and her husband came Sunday night and dug.  

I pointed and chatted. 

This is a lovely solution. They get free plants. I get free weeding. 

My Grape Hyacinth project was a success

I had one neighbor and three couples from Facebook Marketplace dig Grape Hyacinths on Sunday. 

They cleared the whole area that was bugging me. 

They also dug Jonquils and Red Huskers and one clematis that were in the wrong spots. 

My husband helped all of them. 

So that was the manpower of eight people focusing on clearing out one area that was too cluttered. 

Monday morning another lady is coming to clear out another area that is too cluttered with Grape Hyacinths. 

This is a win-win. I charged them a total of $1 each and they all took many buckets of healthy plants home. I get massive gardening help. 

My gardening summer is off to a great start. 

And so the summer begins

I have 7 people coming today for plant starts. 

I have Red Huskers that have come up in the wrong place, as usual. 

And I have decided to eliminate a line of Grape Hyacinths to make weeding easier. 

So, I posted them on Facebook and my phone started blowing up immediately. 

End of the season

It is always a surprise, that there is so much work at the end of the season. 

My husband spent a day disconnecting hoses and splitters and sprinklers.  

The hoses then spent two days stretched out the length of the driveway, draining and drying. He cleaned all the ends with WD40. 

Everything is now packed and put away in the garage. 

The sprinklers are hanging on the peg board, the splitters are all together right by them, in a basket on  the pegboard. 

Middle filled a kiddie pool, known as a dog pool at her house, with soapy water and scrubbed her hoses before she put them away. We did not. 

At our house the hoses are coiled in two plastic garbage cans. At her house they are stored in bags which are then stacked. 

The drainage tile

 Our next door neighbors had a drainage tile. 

They could not really see it from their side. And probably they never thought about it. 

The original owners of that house put it in when they were the only house, surrounded by woods. 

I had to dig hard for these tile pictures, all taken when we were putting in the river rock -

We have lived with that unsightly above ground drainage tile for over twenty years. I thought we would have to wait for new neighbors to have it gone.

Had we asked for this tile to be removed? Yes.

But we had not pushed it. And we had not filed a complaint with the neighborhood. 

I think it was the weekend I was in the east coast, June 2025, at niece’s wedding, that the neighbors had it removed.

I wish I had been here to see the process. There is a lot of trees, tree roots and rock on their side. How the drain spouts were rerouted, I have no idea. But the visible tile was finally gone. 

Three tree stumps

Our next door neighbors had tree work done recently. Four trees were removed. Three of these were in danger of falling on their house. One was an eyesore. 

A tree guy ground down all their stumps. He did a beautiful job, cannot tell their trees were ever there. 

He ground down three stumps in our front wooded area too. 

Two of these stumps were a bit of a challenge. Our high school helper snd my husband had tried to dig them out, no luck. The lawn guys had tried to pry them out with machinery, no luck. This guy cut them out with a very strong round blade that goes down into the dirt. 

He did our yard on a day he was already coming to the neighbors. I paid him cash. I saved his name and number. 

Re-reseeding.

 July 25, 2025

Our front lawn was very uneven, I was afraid of falling or twisting an ankle. 

A crew came in and leveled the front yard, it took a full truck load of dirt. 

This (below) is what the yard looked like at the end of that day, leveled, seeded and strawed. 

My husband watered while I was gone. 

The backyard did well. I posted photos 8/7/25. 

The front yard did not do as well. 

Very little grass came in, and the weeds multiplied hugely because of all the watering. 

Sorry no weed picture. 

I checked with the yard guy who had leveled and seeded. And he said NOT to spray the weeds in such close proximity to the new grass. 

I realize the error of my ways. We had done no lawn treatments, spring 2025, because we were not sure when the yard guys were coming. I should have made them give me a date. I should have found out how to get rid of every weed before we seeded/watered. 

8/10/25

On this day, my husband and I pulled masses of weeds, stretching from the sidewalk to the middle of the yard. I pulled by hand, he used a three pronged rake. It was quite the job. We got 95% of the weeds removed. 

He raked up the old straw, there wasn’t much, you can see the small piles on the driveway. All the old straw was reused.

He mowed around the edges. 

This was all prep work for re-reseeding. 

This photo is the front area stripped bare. 

8/10/25

This second photo, below, is the area deweeded, reseeded and restrawed. All the seeded areas are where the dirt was filled in to even out the low spots. There were a lot of them.

My husband also overseeded the backyard on 8/10/25. He scattered grass seed among the baby grass. He reseeded/strawed all the bare spots. 

I helped where I could, but stayed away from the grass seed and straw, this is the time of year when my respiratory system is the most vulnerable. 

My husband was out working in the yard the entire day. And then he watered. 

I am on watering duty this week. All the hoses and sprinklers are in place. I just have to turn things on and off. We water at least twice a day. 

Grass seed progress, backyard

The landscape guys were here on 7/24/25 grading and seeding the backyard. 

I took these photos (below) today, showing the backyard progress. 

The utility box cover/planter is in each photo for reference.

The curve of the large front wooded area, closest to the house

We have been working on the front wooded area at our house. This has been a two year process. It continues. Today’s post covers where I am to date.

Last year/2024, we (my husband and I) removed nine small trees from the front woods. Our next door neighbor, with the barking dogs, does not like anything hanging over the property line or near his house. And last year, I also cleaned up the edge of the ivy/lily of the valley, it was marching toward the barking dogs neighbor’s driveway.

I took these photos, late June 2025, showing the status of the front wooded area, the curve closest to our house. 

I took these photos on the day the high school boy was coming to help my husband remove the honeysuckle and one more small tree.

In June 2025 we also dug up tree starts from all over this wooded area. I think we removed about 70 tree starts. If you have a woods, tree starts are a natural thing. They have wooden stems and are anchored very firmly. It takes two people, one digs, one pulls. I dug 40-50 small ones, my husband pulled. Then the high school boy and my husband dug/pulled the rest that were bigger. They also dug grass patches that had started. Grass is a terrible problem if it gets started on the wrong place.

July 2025 my husband and I aggressively weeded the curved edge of the wooded area closest to the house.

We moved a few plants. He mulched. The definition of the curve is now lovely. I have more to do with the plants on the far corner. 

Next a lawn crew came and evened out our front yard. Years of tree roots had caused major lumps, bumps and holes. I was terrified of falling or twisting an ankle. They added a lot of dirt. They seeded. 

 

More photos to come, in another month or so, more work is coming to this area. 

Looking at a quarter at a time helps

Last year we rearranged the rectangle garden a bit to divide it into four sections. 

I think my backdoor neighbor with the dogs originally suggested it. 

Dividing this bed in four was a great idea for several reasons.

This provided a pathway for easy access to the center of this large flower bed. 

It also reduced the volume of planting space. 

And most importantly, it makes this bed feel much less daunting to maintain. We look at it 1/4 at a time.

About an month ago, we weeded two of the quarter sections. It had rained the day before, that made everything easier. We started with the goal of one section. It proved fairly easy, the second one was quicker than we thought.

A couple weeks later we weeded and rearranged another 1/4 of this bed. We condensed the great blue lobelia and added three phlox. 

There is only one 1/4 of this bed left and it is the easiest, I pull weeds as I see them.

We did the harder ones first. That proved to be smart. 

Blooming today

These are in the order I took them, walking around the house. 

Day Lilly 

White Bee Balm 

Pink Bee Balm 

Day Lilly

Day Lilly 

Purple Bee Balm 

Day Lilly 

Red Bee Balm 

Day Lilly 

Day Lilly 

Day Lilly 

Day Lilly 

Day Lilly 

Hosta 

Lillies

Day Lillie’s 

Clematis 

Clematis 

Lavender 

Stella (yellow) Day Lillies with a few other (orange) day Lillies.

These are the Lillies that the bunnies ate last year. 

What’s blooming

 Two (of the five) clematis near the front of the house are blooming -

The Stella Day lilies are still blooming - 

The other (regular) day lilies are just starting to bloom -

Those are red snap dragons (with a day lily behind them). Snap dragons are a beloved annual from my childhood. One of my nurseries suggested planting them in a set spot last year. She said they would reseed themselves and come up as if they were a perennial, they did.

The Lilies (above and below) are in Witness Protection (hidden from the bunnies) - 

The first hosta is starting to bloom, many more to come -

The first bee balm is starting to bloom -

Anise hyssop just starting to bloom -

The Butterfly Weed (that survived the winter, I lost a lot) is in bloom -