We're finally blessing Grayson this Sunday and have spent the last two Saturdays working on the yards to pretty them up before all of our family comes to visit. We just love how big the lawns are, but they sure needed a bit of work when we moved in. Josh took the time to put down winter fertilizer after we had it aerated last fall, and it really paid off. It's already nice and green! We haven't successfully killed off the few dandelions yet and we still need to treat it for spots of grubs and crabgrass, but it's definitely doable for an outside gathering this weekend.
The shrubbery and flower beds still need a bit of work, though. The owner planted several varieties of rose bushes around the house, but they hadn't been pruned the last couple of years and were becoming an eyesore. So Josh got some pruning shears from his parents' house and I started cutting away on Saturday. Our neighbors, Bill and Kit, came over to inspect my work and Bill asked if he could try it. Although we disagreed on how short to trim the bushes (the owner told me to trim the bushes down to about 3 feet, but Bill was dead-set on 13 inches), I gave him the pruning shears anyway. Over the next hour-and-a-half, Bill nearly obliterated four rose bushes in the front yard, all the while assuring me they weren't too short. I gave up protesting after the first bush, and Kit and I pulled weeds instead. While the rose bushes look much better now (you can see the front of the house!), I'm a little worried we won't get any actual flowers this summer.
Before Bill
After Bill
There were an awful lot of really long, thorny rose branches to dispose of afterward, so Josh had to cut them all up to fit in the trash can. What you see in this picture are the cuttings from only one rose bush!
I don't think either of us realized how much we missed yard work until we came back to one after having a small patch of grass in Las Vegas. We even fight over who gets to mow the lawns (although Josh usually wins because my time's better spent in the laundry room). Oh, I can't wait to plant my garden this year!
3 comments:
That's how short we were told to trim our roses in Oregon, and we still got roses every summer. Hoping yours do just as well.
Nice work! I was thinking of planting rose bushes in front of our house, too. I also really want to plant tomatoes this year. It seems everyone in our neighborhood has tomatoes but us! You'll have to give me some gardening tips.
We never fight over who mows the lawn. That's cute of you guys.
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