News from Here

 We are back from a week's vacation in the Catskills.  [Those photos will have to wait until I've sorted them from three cameras.] It was a nice gathering with our two daughters, their spouses and our three granddaughters, one of whom we haven't seen since we visited them in Buffalo in April.

We returned Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning Dan and I tackled a landscaping project we could handle - seeding the bare spot created by shortening the deck by half.  Though that area had been covered by black plastic and decking for almost 30 years, the soil must have had dormant crabgrass seeds which quickly sprouted while we awaited the finishing of the deck by our slow carpenter. That happened the day before we headed out on vacation.

Do you remember my asking if anyone knew what the spiky leaf plant was that showed up among the iris I had planted at one corner of the old deck?

Turns out it was gladiola.  Since I had to move these and the iris there, I cut off several stems of blooming or nearly blooming stalks. Aren't they lovely?

My daughter insisted that gladiola don't winter over in NH, but these obviously did and have multiplied through the years.  I carefully dug up the bulbs to transplant to same depth.

They now reside in a new bed next to the deck.

Below is the scene this morning awaiting moving the iris, gladiola and Shasta daisies that were in the other corner. We had weeded out the crabgrass and seeded yesterday.

Against the fence the impatiens are thriving.

I did find a blue bird bath at Home Depot.

Next Sunday our mower guy is coming the remove this mound, some lilacs stumps in the back and the front yard.

Before moving the Shasta daisies I did snip off all the blossoms and fill two vases.

Here's another plant I asked about some time ago.  It likes this location whatever it is and ...

now has a yellow flower.

Here's the view from front yard to deck and beyond.  This area will be better graded on Sunday.

We started earlier this morning then we did on Sunday to complete our landscaping chore.  We got done by 10 am. All the plants moved and, with exception of iris, replanted.  I'll replant iris later. We mulched a new narrow bed along the deck and lined it with rocks.  The rest of the area there has been seeded for grass.

This bed next to house and deck is an eyesore right now. I didn't show much of it in this photo because it looks so bad.  I think I will eventually dig up the perennials there and move them elsewhere, then seed it for grass.  

The pots survived the neglect while deck was being finished and now are back on the steps.

See the brown paint?  We were considering painting the house that color but after testing it out we decided to go with a pale yellow with white trim.  Painter coming sometime between now and end of September.  How's that for a timetable?  We are still awaiting the concrete guy to pour the slab in the barn.  Once that's done the driveway can be graded and the barn whisperer can return to put on the doors.

That's the news from here.

Blueberry season

 

The last slice of blueberry pie.  This was from the second pie I made recently.  Blueberries picked very locally - from my neighbors huge blueberry patch.  She charges $2 a pint and opens it only to town residents.  Blueberries were huge and sweet.

Before and After

 We jettisoned our tree contractor last Saturday.  Very unresponsive since we signed off on their proposal in late January.  Lots of run around when we did hear from them twice from January to June.  I searched Angie's List and found a contractor last Friday, he called me within hours and came Saturday to look at what we needed done.  We agreed on the price and he came with his crew of three on Wednesday of this week and completed the job on Thursday.  I gave him a stellar review on Angie's List.

Here are before and after photos.

To the right of the slider as I come out on the deck was this jungle of lilacs.

Below gone!

To the left from the deck more lilacs and other volunteer bushes and trees that had never been tended.

Below gone!

Looking straight out from slider hemlocks and bushes very overgrown.

Below hemlocks limbed up and topped and bushes gone!

Same view from deck but looking more to the right.

Below the after shot.

Our former view of the field and hill behind us and below our view now.

Much more to be done. That mound in the above photo was full of trees and bushes.  Now we need to level it.  Tim who mows for us has tapped his brother in law to help him move it to fill in low spots in the yard.  We need to tackle mulching to keep the weeds down.  Thankfully many of the root balls of the lilacs and trees were pulled out by the tree guys but there are still some that an excavator will have to tackle.

In other good news the carpenter finished the deck today.  I'll share more on that project when I get to return the potted plants to the deck and we have seeded the portion of lawn that used to be under the deck. The original deck was huge and we halved the size of it.

Have You Seen This One?

In other news, I'm going to take a break for a bit.  I'm tired of posting about how slow contractors work or don't work.  Would you believe the deck is still not finished? No sign of the concrete for the barn flooring and nothing from the tree/landscape contractor.

Maybe when I return there will be more interesting things to share.