This year's birthday was quite different! It was basically a "normal" Sunday, with church in the morning, and working around the house once we got home.
As most of you know, I've been working hard on our little "woods" on our property. You may wonder why I've talked about this area of our yard so much, and the reason is simple. For the first 12 years of living here, we pretty much ignored this area! This area had become very overrun with weeds and burdock (I really hate burdock!). That's the plant that leaves "burrs" all over the place that stick to your clothing! YUCK! Anyway, so a few years ago, I bought my walk-behind trimmer (kind of a wanna-be brush hog), and started to work on that area of the yard. I don't like to use poison on weeds if I can help it because of the chickens. They free-range and wander the whole yard, and the last thing I want to do is poison them. From what I've read, if I continually whack off the burdock while it's growing, eventually, it will stop growing. So, I go out there every week or so in the summer and whack everything down, including all of that nasty burdock! While doing that, I'm adding all kinds of cool stuff to make it look pretty!
You may recall that last fall, we were able to get the big galvanized steel trough out of the barn and put it in the woods with the intention of using it as a planter. Well, something that big would take a LOT of dirt, so Greg filled it with the branches from the trees and bushes I chopped down. Then we put landscape fabric over that, and then dirt. Even with that, it took about 28 bags of dirt to fill! We finally got it done, though and I planted a bunch of flowers in it and planted a boatload of seeds! I had some new from this year, and a packet of wildflower seeds from 2015. I'm not sure if those will grow or not, but we shall see! I'm excited to see how it looks in a month!
The new chickens are enjoying this part of the yard!
The picture below is from the road.
And a couple close-ups. In this first one, the container with the fern in it (the fern is fake) is a pig feeder that Abby picked up for me last year! How cool is that?! You can also see a bit of what looks like an old red barn door. It's actually a part from an old farm wagon that Abby got for me! That girl sure knows what I like!!!
Here, you can see the wash tubs that I bought two years ago at a big flea market. I still have not ever seen beautiful round enamel ones like this, either in someone's yard or at another flea market!
This next picture is the last area that I need to reclaim. Last year, it was so thick that you could hardly even walk in it! Before everything started growing this year, I went out there and chopped down a buttload of Poplar trees that just grew up here. It's going to take a while to get it to where I want, but it's a start!
And some pictures of the front of the house. Here, you can see on the left, the washtub that I had an old babysitter go back and pick up the stand from a garbage pile! Along with some other antiques. Notice the old cast iron stove on the right? That has an old soup pot with flowers in it and a tea kettle planter! See what I did there? Kitchen pots used as planters on a stove! Ha, ha I still need to do some trimming of the bushes, but that will now have to wait for fall.
I need to do some more weeding and trimming here, but I'm so happy with how the front is looking!
If you recall the before and after pictures when I trimmed these bushes you could hardly see the white Bleeding Heart that was there. This is a plant that I bought about 3 years ago from a Master Gardener, and it's definitely a masterpiece! This plant is HUGE and so beautiful!
So, that's a brief stroll through the yard and what I've been working on! It's been a lot of work, and my back is definitely feeling it, but I'll be fine in a day or two, and I'll be smiling every time I look at what all the hard work has accomplished!
Until next time! Love, peace and prayers to all!
Julie
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