More Work in the Front Yard

You can probably tell by now I didn't really have a "real" plan for my garden renovation. I will work in the front yard for a while, then move to the back, then back to the front again. I'm really good at starting something, then going to look for something I need and end up cleaning up the shed or start taking cuttings which I have to immediately plant (or at least within a couple of days).

A Comfortable Place to Sit

My next project was to create a comfortable place to sit in the front yard...a place where I could sit and read and listen to the waterfall in the pond and not be seen by passing cars. There was a place by the azalea island bed, but I had to get John to move a couple of azaleas back a few feet so I could have a little cubbyhole for my chairs. I purchased two adirondack chairs from a 75 year old man who lived across from my credit union. He advertised he would make them and paint them whatever color I wanted. I think they cost $75 each...and that included an ottoman. At the time, I didn't realize they should have been made of cedar, because he used pine (which was cheaper) and I threw them away a month ago because they had rotted...about three years later.

Anyway, I had John make me a frame out of pressure treated wood and I bought some 12 X 12 concrete pavers to make a platform for the chairs. I used to take my laptop out there and do some work and listen to the birds chirp. I put up a few bird feeders which attracted birds as well as squirrels. Here's a photo of my seating area:

Purple is my favorite color and I love this shade. I also like cobalt blue and red accents in the garden.

I got tired of fighting with the squirrels, and I now have a cat who is an excellent hunter, so I don't see very many birds or squirrels anymore. I think the birds have gotten the word about my killer cat. After I threw away the rotten adirondack chairs recently, I put up a new bird feeder I got for Christmas a couple of years ago. I haven't seen any birds in it yet, but it looks like the seeds are getting lower. I don't know if the seeds are just settling or what because I never see any birds and I can see the feeder from my living room window.

Next... a platform for a nice urn I purchased from Home Depot.

The Raised Flower Bed

My next project was creating a new bed around the big oak tree in the backyard. This area was really overgrown with fern. When I bought the house, I thought the fern looked nice. . . I didn't notice there was so much of it. Come to think of it, there probably wasn't as much because I didn't do anything to the yard the first four years I lived here. Here is a before picture:

I started pulling the fern around the big oak tree by hand and quickly developed carpel tunnel. The fern has very shallow roots, but there was so much of it, my wrists couldn't take it. My carpel tunnel was so bad, I couldn't type or even grip a pen to write! I was afraid I had done permanent damage. It took seven days for my wrists to recover!

I decided to hire the Stone brothers in my neighborhood to finish the job. The boys were great. They even came with a bee sting kit and told me, after they were finished, they got stung several times. They were only about 7 and 9 years old then. Now they're teenagers!

Here are before and afters of the raised bed around the big oak tree:

After the fern was gone, I again took John away from his master bath renovation to build me a raised bed around the tree. There were too many tree roots to try and dig around them. It took 60 bags of compost and top soil from Home Depot to fill it.

Raising the bed made a nice area for cascading sweet potato vine and Torenia (wishbone flower). The Torenia flowers year round in Central Florida and does not need fertilizer to flower. It is one of my favorite plants. The sweet potato vine actually produces sweet potatoes. I've never eaten one of them, but some friends who took cuttings said the sweet potatoes were not very good. I guess you have to plant them with the right kind of fertilizer to get the right taste. I don't know since I've never done any vegetable gardening. Try the link above to learn more.

The Pergola Project Part II

John bought the materials for the pergola and finished it in one weekend. I designed it so that it would create more privacy from the street. We put three sides on it with lattice panels and kept the front open. I put a swing in it that I had acquired from a friend who was going to throw it out. She didn't like it because she didn't have much shade in her yard. The canopy acted as a sail and the wind kept blowing it over. She didn't save the hardware and I told her John could put it together, so she gave it to me. John had bought the necessary hardware that very day and had it all put together that night. My friend came over and was surprised we had it together and in place in such a short time. It is so nice having someone who can fix things and build things we need around the house! The swing used to be located on the screened porch which John was transforming into the new master bath. So the pergola became the new perfect home for it.

Here are before and after pictures of the pergola:

People ask me all the time how do I keep the weeds from growing back. The best thing is to put down weed fabric and mulch over that. It also helps if the area does not get watered by the irrigation system. Of course, weeds will sprout in the mulch, so I do have to pull weeds from time to time. But it is not that bad if I do a little every morning as I stroll through the garden with my cup of coffee. I usually only weed this area about once a month.

The Pergola Project Part I

I asked my fiance if he would build me a pergola where our nuptials would take place. It would provide more privacy in the backyard from anyone who might be walking down the sidewalk. The kids in the neighborhood tend to ride their skateboards down the section where the ceremony would take place, and a barrier would be great to minimize such distractions. At the time I made my request, my fiance was building an addition on the house. He was turning the screen porch outside the master bedroom into a new master bathroom. Here are some before and after pictures:

This is my fiance, John, doing the block work for the new master bathroom.

John finished the bathroom the morning of the wedding. He was painting the bathroom door that morning! Here is the finished bathroom.

John, my fiance, did all the plumbing, electrical, block work, foundation work. He hired his brother-in-law, John Heizman of John's Custom Woodworking, to build and install the cabinets, tub surround, wall niche above the tub, and crown molding. Check out John's website at the link.

The Fountain

The next thing I did was purchase a 4 tier fountain from a place on 436 ... close to the 17-92 intersection. I can't remember the name of it. Anyway, the fountain weighed 500 pounds and I had to have it professionally delivered and installed. There is an area in the backyard that was a tangled mess of fern, vines and 6 foot tall shell ginger. I created a path by mowing through the fern and then pulling the stubs out by the roots. This was the best method for me. I got the fountain installed, put a bench across from it and created my meditation spot. Then I decided to pull out the rest of the fern and plant a bed there. I've tried several things, but ended up with the plants posted in my June 22 post "Pond Plants and Shade Plants." Here is a before picture of that area:

I had to pull a lot of fern to get to this:

This is a wonderful place to just sit and think:

Our Little Park

Sorry it's been so long since my last post. My husband and I went on a much needed vacation ... just a 3 day cruise to the Bahamas, but no phones or internet, so we were forced to relax. Yahoo! Since returning, I have gotten several calls to do photo montages. My website is really working for me. If you search for slideshow Orlando or photo montage Orlando or my latest client told me she searched for "photos to DVD" and found me. Yahoo again!

After my fiance, John, gave me the go ahead to start working on the garden for the wedding, I started working full time in the garden. I decided I wanted the entire front and back yards to look like Leu Gardens, with winding paths and "rooms" throughout. I haven't been good at creating theme rooms; it has been a challenge figuring out what will live in my mostly shade garden. I want more color than shades of green...impatiens are great but not 1/2 acre of them!

After we got rid of the grass, the weeds took over in no time. I did not have time to get all the flower beds installed before the wedding, so I had to focus on a couple of flower beds and cover the large grassless areas with weed fabric then cover that with mulch. We should have bought stock in weed fabric that year! It ended up looking very nice. With all the tree coverage the leaves covered the mulch in a matter of days. It looked much like a state park as you can see.