Moe vs. Yard: Round Two

I'm not sure if it was my mom wishing me good luck or really thinking I really need the help, but she sent both my sister and myself these books; Better Homes and Gardens Step-By-Step Ultimate Yard & Garden and Reader's Digest 1001 Hints & Tips for Your Garden. I received them yesterday and believe me they came in handy today! Highly recommend them for anyone who needs a little help with their green thumb.

I started the daunting task of tackling the very overgrown and weedy backyard. I literally had some weeds that were boob height (which if I were to estimate is about 4'6"). And you can't be a gardening diva with boob height weeds. Sadly, I'm off to a bad start. On the day we did the front lawn, I decided to give my seedlings (remember this) a little extra sun that they weren't getting inside. Like a goon, I didn't take off their covers and ended up cooking them. Epic fail. After a call to mom, she suggested to just buy plants and try again next spring. Probably the best route.

I started the day with another Lowe's run to get pruning shears since I didn't think I could get through some of the stalked ragweed. Ended up spending time staring at Rust-Oleum 's new Cabinet and Counter Transformations (definitely a future project!) and how awesome it really it is. I also swung by We-Energies since I heard that they do free wood chips from fallen trees at a local location. Basically, I wanted to see if it was more chips than mulch. Luckily, its more mulch. So free mulch? Yes please!

Check out how much this space had grown in just two weeks!

Most of the day was just demolition but I did learn a few things. Starting to clear the lily area, I really had no clue what kinds of plants I was going to encounter other than the lilies. I ran upon some buried plant flags saying that we had blueberries and blackberry bushes. I ran to check my new books/Google if they were perennials which they were. Unfortunately, I didn't catch what plant was what in time and cut the blueberry bush down thinking it was a weed. We'll get them next year. After that, I boned up on the kinds of weeds I had so I wouldn't have anymore casualties.

When I started, everything was covered with two years of overgrowth, weeds and dead rot of plant material below.

Some of dead rot was so bad it was literally killing the new plants from below. I was so glad to get that old stuff out of there to give the plants a chance to thrive.

I also cut out a small tree growing out from underneath the house and discovered chives growing next to the back steps. I ended up having two extremely full bags of yard waste to take away. I can't wait to start composting once I get all this crap out of there. It is suggested to not put fresh weeds in compost since they could have seeds which would ruin the whole batch.

Just that little big effort of clearing the dead material made a world of difference in the irises. I can't wait until they get a little more sun and air to the soil. The blackberry bush is currently dangling over the tulips. They need some sort of a trellis to help them grow vertically instead of along the ground.

 Now I can finally start planting that garden! Who's getting hungry?

I received another sunburn as well. I'll either end this summer with a great farmer's tan or skin cancer. Hopefully, I take after my father and not the later. Who else has had a massive plant clean-up story?