Well, after being in the house just over a year, we have done a few things (new roof, repainted front porch, added a few plants, ripped up most of the remaining carpet upstairs and replaced some of the tons of rotted siding (the house was a boarding/halfway house and the termite situation was neglected for years).
At this time, we have killed off the predominantly crabgrass front yard (the side abutting Hillsborough) and installed some irrigation; we will now back fill that, measure and order sod. The other side of the front lawn is still mostly grass, so we are trying to save it...weeding, plugging and watering.
We are also getting ready to replace some majorly rotted siding around the side door facing Hillsborough, complete with it's own squirrel sized hole. We have listened to this squirrel (or rat, but I don't want to think about that possibility) grow up in our walls, from a little pitter-patter to some disturbing shuffling about, and perhaps we will feel a little bad about wrecking the habitat, but I pay taxes, the squirrel/rat does not, so I win.
I had the pleasure of consulting with Nikki Couture regarding my back yard, which, besides the bamboo, banana trees, giant bird of paradise and the big wrap around deck, is a bit pitiful right now.....full of overgrown weeds (the kind with sticky seed pods that follow you and your dogs all through the house), and lots of nothingness. Nikki has designed an easy to implement, self sustaining plan for the backyard which will be interesting, pretty and full of birds & butterflies. We will start working on a few things shortly...Thanks Nikki!
4 comments:
Why not have Nikki work on a plan (non-grass) for the front yard? Sounds like you have plenty of projects without mowing and weeding every couple weeks. Sod and irrigation are a losing proposition in this climate. Unsustainable use of water. Plenty of grass-free front yards in SH to get ideas from,,,,
You know, I've thought of that...and that's probably something we will start looking at after this batch of sod dies an ugly drawn out death....I think that part of what attracted us to the house in the first place was the almost formal front yard, with nearly symmetrical shrub plantings and the nice green lawn. We have already replaced the sidewalk strip with mulch and plantings. (anyone know how to get rid of non-dwarf mondo grass? It comes back after we dug, sprayed, applied landscape fabric and pluck every week)I figured for at least awhile we can maintain this small piece of grass.....but now that I see how you can still have a full, green look without grass, that may be an option....I'd love to see pictures of front yards (back ones too) with no grass.....inspiration!
Did you ever find out what was living in your wall?
nope, it's still there...it doesn't go up in the ceiling much anymore, probably because it's gotten too big to fit through something up there. I'm hoping we will never formally meet. Once we get the sod in, we will order some lumber from Rome Lumber and get the rotted wood replaced and hope our roommate gets locked out, not in.
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