You say tomato...

I say tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, cucumbers and lettuce.  It was another busy day at 64 Holmes Ave.  My friend Kate and I headed to the Brookwood Community Farm Plant Sale (and Pancake breakfast) to purchase some vegetable plants.  After the relaxing morning of plant retail therapy I got down to business.  I decided to go with a bucket vegetable garden this year, simply because it will make my life easier :)  I also worked on adding mulch to the other side of the house.  It does not appear as though I have made a dent in the mulch pile, so I will probably put down another layer in addition to mulching some other areas of the yard that are around the side and in the back yard.  Many of my perennials are starting to grow, but I believe that I have a rabbit or squirrel eating the flowers off of my pansies and the leaves off of one of my echinacea plants.  I am leaning more towards a rabbit because the squirrels are certainly getting enough food from the bird feeder; there is no need to travel to the front of the house for flowers.

My mini garden - complete with Lowe's advertisements :)

Bea balm, echinacea and Montauk daisy taking root....spot treatment for grass, not so much. 

Proof that my pansies did produce flowers - this is currently the only pansy with blooms.

Tore out the end of the evergreen.  I think it is all going to come out in order to make room for hosta plants.  Note the kayak racks on the car - tomorrow is a day of fun in the sun and NO yard work!

The slow-to-disapear mulch pile.  It is slowly going away.

Big brother is always watching

For the past three days, I have been working in the front yard.  Occasionally, I feel like I am on a stage and that I might be performing for the neighbors.  I know that on occasion some of them are watching my technique, my progress, my obsession with getting it just right.  By now they must know that I am a hard worker, that I care about my house and that I have a slight case (ok - a major case) of OCD. If they are occasionally peaking out the window to see what I am up to, I hope they weren't looking when I accidentally tipped over the wheel barrow half full of mulch, when I got myself wedged behind one of the shrubs and turned around in circles a few times before I found my way out or when I realized that my underwear were hanging out of my shorts while I was reaching through two bushes to level off some mulch.  Whether they are watching or not, I know that they mean well and that when they are out in their yard I am sure I will take a peak to see what they are doing.  I can only hope that they like what they see if they are looking...I know I do :)

Sunday morning brought 4 yards of mulch - this could take a while.

Before I started moving the mulch, I had to clean out the beds.  A few hours later and I had made some considerable progress.

Eventually, I will work on the pavers from the walkway 

I found another outdoor spigot, so I made level area to put a hose

I cleared away the weeds and used some of the soil to create a level surface for the rain barrel.  The weather report is calling for rain over the next few days, so I should have rain water for my plants in no time.

Some of the roots that I pulled from the side of the house.  Some of these roots were an inch in diameter!  This is the second barrel - the other one was just as full.

And this is what I looked like after spending Sunday in the yard.

The rain held off on Monday evening, so I decided to get some mulch in place so that I didn't lose all of the soil in the upcoming rain.

The finished product 

They don't sell men at Lowe's

Lately, I feel like I have done nothing but run around - literally :)  Now that the marathon is over, I can start to focus on other things like final exams, National Honor Society Inductions, and the house.  I decided that I would focus on the yard this weekend.  The grass height had reached a point of embarrassment since I was out of town last weekend and it rained for the past four days.  I had a feeling that the neighbors were sitting around talking about me and my un-groomed yard.  I am fairly certain that if a small child would have fallen in the yard, I would not have seen them.  So, I came home from work on Friday with a mission - mow the lawn.  Two hours later and the place looked amazing.  I even received a few compliments from the neighbors about what a nice job I was doing with the place :)

When I woke up this morning, I decided it was going to be a soil and mulch type of day.  The woman at the landscaping place persuaded me to have the two delivered on different days (and she was very intelligent to do so).  Two yards of dirt were dumped in front of my house around 11am and at 6pm I had roughly 2/3 of the dirt put into place.  The neighbors are starting to visit more - specifically to give their two cents about how/what I am doing.  They tell me about ways to angle the soil, about how many times I ran the previous week, about when I came home the night before, etc.  Today, however, brought about an interesting comment. One of my elderly neighbors informed me that I should have a man helping me shovel the soil from my front yard.  I smiled and told her that it was a great suggestion, but that my friends were busy today.  Those of you who know me are well aware of my inner thoughts, hence the title of today's blog.  Ultimately, all of my neighbors are very kind, well-meaning people and they keep an eye out for me, which I greatly appreciate.  Maybe after the 4 yards of mulch are dumped in my yard tomorrow and I deal with that all by myself, they will lay off the man talk (because it is not like I don't  think the same thing on occasion, but really!?!?!).  Regardless of whether or not anyone else is here with me, I LOVE my house and I am enjoying the effort it takes to beautify the yard and make it feel even more like HOME.

Enjoy some of the photos from today....next weekend I am heading to the Brookwood Community Farm in Milton for a plant sale (and pancake breakfast).  I hope to get a few veggies and herbs to plant.

Trying to fill some of the bare patches in the front yard.  Still more to do, but it is a start.

My new rain barrel - ready for the next dose of non-stop rain

My freshly cut grass - back yard

The soil - 2 yards - before

The soil - ? yards - after