Old Is New Again

Apart from finally planting my Madison Jasmine, Hubby and I accomplished a lot today. I worked a little bit on my shade garden moving plants around. I know plants don't like to move around but I think at this time of the year I can do as I please.

Circle Of Birds

I so wanted to throw this bird feeder away but today I decided to paint it and see how it comes out. I found some old paint in my garage and some unused sponge painting brush and viola! I am looking forward to hearing birds chirp in the "Circle of The Birds" as my son refers to my planting bed around the tree. In my shade garden I have a bird bath and now a bird feeder.

Bird Feeder Before

Bird Feeder After

 By the way, this bird feeder, as I found out, is causing some problems in my raised bed. The seeds that I've put in there have been falling on to the bed and seeding! I have to move it where I don;t care if it seeds.

Ready For Before And After...

But not quite! We still have a lot of mulching to do before I can take some final pictures of the project. Yesterday, I planted some more plants that I picked up at the garden center. They are all perennials and I hope that next year they will all provide some beautiful flowers!

I also transplanted many peonies that I mistakenly grew in pots this year. I still have a lot to learn when it comes to gardening so mistake like that will happen.

It is fall so there are lots of
leaves falling especially in my backyard.

We finally stained the arbor and the bridge and that meant that hubby could plant my Madison Jasmine! We won't ever stain this arbor again because this vine will climb up it and cover the whole thing providing shade and awesome smells come end of spring season. I bought it already big so it should be a matter of few years before it covers the whole thing.

 Below is the view of the backyard from my deck

I am looking forward to this Pristine Mountain Laurel! It already has new growth. I planted where I can see it all the time. This plant is not very cheap! I could have waited to see if I could get a small version of it it maybe half the price but I just want to finish so next year I can focus on enjoying my yard. Besides I have a lot planned for next year other than working in the garden.

Pristine Laurel - Beautiful Plant, also makes great deer food!

Power Of The Sun

Today was a beautiful day and naturally I spent it outside in my garden. Hubby and I planted a lot of ground cover plants to finish the front yard. We planted some ice plant and purple verbena.

I also planted some of my bulbs that were moved from the front and left to die by Greenscape people. They include asiatic lilies and peonies.

 As I was planting the bulbs, I noticed how beautifully the sun was coming down in between the trees. I decided to take a few pictures. The streaks of rainbow colors you see in the picture are actual sun rays.

The red flower being washed by sun rays you see on the picture is a pineapple sage. I cook with it but this year because there was so much work in the backyard, I did not get to use it as much. So, seeing how beautifully it has flowered, I've decided to plant one or two in the front yard in spring next year! It flowers in the fall and I think it will go very well with my knockouts.

Signs Everywhere

Signs that we are towards the end of the project are everywhere. First Greenscape came to fix some of the issues that are outstanding. They did good job in the dry creek by edging it with eight inch stones; now grass should not flow into the dry creek.

They also tried a fix to the standing water problem. I am not convinced that what they've done is a permanent fix; time will tell. It is a very strange solution. I know band aids never work but again spring monsoons are coming and we should know soon in enough.

Second mulch was delivered this morning on time I might add. We bought it in bulk because we realized how much mulching we needed done. It looks like the 12 cubic yards that we bought aren't going to cut it. When I pulled to the driveway after work today, Hubby was hard at work spreading mulch. I did not even go inside the house I joined in. But we had to stop at around eight post meridian. Our yard lacks lighting; it was too dark. We still have a long way to go but  I think we will get there. This weekend we all have tons of engagements so really there is no hope that we will be done this weekend.

Third, our grass is filling in nicely in the backyard. Thanks to the recent rain we did not have to do much at all in terms of watering. I was dreading the dragging of hose around the yard and now I don't have to worry about that.
It is Fall season so no much I have to do except prepare for halloween. You can see that leaves are already falling! 

Still Fighting Greenscape Over Not So Flowery Beds

I am still fighting Greenscape on the solution to the pools of water left in my so-called flower beds. I had to drag Greenscape kicking and screaming to fix these beds. Gosh, I regret why I asked them to do them in the first place. I should have had them just do the hardscapes because that is what they seem to know how to do and it ends there. Or maybe I should have never ask them to do anything because of overcharges that I have incurred in the project.

They are still going to come up with some band-aid solution to this by digging more trenches which will be refilled by the eroded soil. Greenscape is interested in providing band-aid solutions that will last until they are no longer liable as a company. After what they've charged us for this project, I deserve to be happy with it and they are not even close. So, I will continue to fight them until I am satisfied. Here is the picture of the puddle of water I am referring to.

Many months later the problem still stands! Greenscape is quick to have you sign, and once  Greenscapes get their money, they have to be called, emailed, dragged, kicking and screaming. They have no interest in creating what you want but to get you to sign and take your money. Also, ask them how much they are charging per square foot before you sign anything. I paid a lot of money for generic brands!

I Can See The Promised Land!

It is Sunday night and I am very happy with the progress we've made. We are not done yet but the finish line is in our sights. We almost finished the whole thing but alas we still have some planting to do. All shrubs in the front are in except for some ground cover which I have not decided on. I have a vast desert that needs a lot of plants and I thought ground-cover plants will do the job. I am leaning toward sedum or verbena. We even threw a little party in our backyard which was nice.

 Our backyard is getting a lot of use already and that is what I intended. We had lunch there and had dinner by the firepit. 

Once the front yard retaining wall was done I started on my backyard raised beds. They are coming out real nice but whew, they need a lot of topsoil. The whole family pitched on this one! They just need soil now and a good amount of plants. 

Hubby still needs to stain the bridge and the arbor. And then on to mulch!

 Below is the beginning of the bed. I am actually excited by this.

 I took these photographs at night so you can't really see well, but trust me they have come out really nice.

Retaining Wall, All By Myself!

I can visualize things and then try to create them. I wanted to create this retaining wall for a long time but I was not sure if I could do it. I finally bought the stone that matched our house and got started. The man in the stone place that helped me showed me what I needed to do and i went to work. I chose a dry stack wall to save time and money. I reinforced it with gravel so it can be sturdy. It was back-breaking work but it now finally done! Below is a picture of gravel stone I had to pour behind the wall to reinforce it and prevent stones from wobbling.

Once I completed the wall, I transplanted some hanging basket that were in the back of my house. Every year I am going to buy these hanging basket flowers and plant them so they can cascade down the wall. I had bought them at Duke Gardens sale and kept the names of the plants so I can recreate the baskets without paying a lot of money.

We are going to power-wash all the surfaces once we are completely done with everything, which I hope will be this Sunday! Below is the picture of my Coral Bark Japanese Maple. I hope it will thrive there even though there might be more shade than it needs. Also, you can see Creeping Jenny, a spreading ground cover.

Back-Breaking Retaining Wall And Whole Week Of Nothing.

Martha Stewart Fire-pit set.  Table fits right into our fire pit for intimate fires.

Wow, it has been a while since I reported progress and that is because nothing much has changed really. I have been fighting Greenscapes over my flower beds which are really not flower beds but tilled up soil. Supposedly they put 2 inches of "good soil" in their beds and till in. First they botched the whole process because instead of sod-cutting the grass they opted to till it which means that a lot of grass is mixed into the soil that makes up the planting beds. Also, all flower beds have drainage problem which is why there is standing water. They did not use "good soil" or they used very little of it to make a difference. Clay soil does not drain well so if you want to amend it, it is better to mix in as much of organic soil as possible. I am absolutely unhappy with their planting beds.

 Greenscapes was supposed to come and fix my flower beds but they literally did nothing except dig a trench for water to run into the dry creek. Where and how I am supposed to plant on that is beyond me. So, we wasted the whole week for nothing.

After realizing that Greenscapes has no intention of fixing the beds we decided to go ahead and plant which we did a lot of this weekend. I have no pictures to show (I will add them later in the week or tomorrow) so I will update this blog and add pictures. We still have a lot of planting left but we have done most of the work.

We finally broke in the fire-pit. It turns out we need a lot of fire to actually feel it because, instead of 36 inches diameter that we decided on, it is actually 42 inches which is not a very big deal. But it is also very high at least 20 inches in height which keeps the heat inside of the pit rather than spread it. Only solution I can see here is for us to make a bigger fire instead of the size we had. It was nice to make smores with  the kids. My son has been  begging me since the beginning of this project and he finally got his wish. My daughter enjoyed it too. Come to thing about it, it was nice to see them enjoying each other's company and laughing at each other's jokes.

Guess what, I also made a retaining wall on the front door walkway. It was original to my plan but Greenscapes did not include it because of "budget constraints" even though I overpaid for so much in what they  have done for me. It is not completely finished but it what broke my lower back. How I am still up is beyond me, so I have to go to sleep now.

One more thing, great accomplishment overall.