Landscaping Lessons the Hard Way
When my husband and I first bought our house, we wanted one major thing–a yard for future kids to run around in. The problem was, although the backyard was large, it was doughnut-shaped with a ton of trees in the middle. For the first three years, we lived with it, tried to plant azaleas or tulips to make it pretty. But it always resembled a clump of the ugliest stick trees known to man. You know the kind–the ones that have no branches at all for the first twenty feet; then they have tiny little scrubby branches at the top. Ugly with a capital Ug.
So one day we decided to get rid of them. We called our tree removal specialists (aka Lumberjack Bob) and found that it wasn’t all that expensive to do the job. We removed 17 trees and opened up our yard. It amazes me what the difference became. We now have an airy, open yard with tons of space to put flowerbeds.
I am guilty of planting flowers and shrubs wherever I think they might look good instead of actually reading the tag. My engineer husband is obsessive over the location of the plants–”Honey, the sedum requires full sun, NOT shade. Move it 6.2475 inches to the left.” At which time, I whack him upside the head with the shovel.
No, seriously. He’s teaching me the ins and outs of landscaping. I’ve learned which plants do well in shade, which ones don’t, that spraying Round-up on my tomato plants instead of Bug-B-Gon is a BAD IDEA…you get the picture.
My grandmother is a gardening whiz. Just for your enjoyment, here’s what HER backyard looks like:
Michelle posted in Life and So On @ 3:46 pm | Viewed 1901 times
Crystal* Says:
Ooooooooooo pretty. My yard is a jumble of weeds, assorted animals, and burn barrels. Not aesthetically pleasing, I can tell you.
We need to work on the INSIDE of the house before we get froggy with the out. But I want to see pictures of YOURS when it’s done.
Grins*
Bonnie Ferguson Says:
:confused: What a beautiful backyard
I concur with Crystal on seeing your backyard 
Amy K. Says:
I used to think I wanted to love gardening. Now I know I don’t. We live in a new house with very limited landscaping, and while I’d love it to look like your grandma’s yard, I don’t want it bad enough to work for it.
Christine Keach Says:
You’ve been tagged! Kindly venture to my blog, answer the reading related questions, post them on your blog and then tag 5 other people!:ick:
katie Says:
Michelle, your grandma’s yard looks like my inlaw’s - just gorgeous. Mine isn’t there. Yet. One day. Would love to see your open area!
Michelle Says:
Christine–I can’t post a comment on your blog yet because you have it set up so that only bloggers can post. I did do the reading questions already though.
Katie, Bonnie, and Crystal–I’ll post a picture of my yard soon.
Rene Says:
Yeah, Round Up on a tomato plant would be a bad thing:confused2:
My dh spends his entire life in our yard. When we moved into this house, the back yard had huge ugly trees and oleanders. As I have children and a tortoise, I told hubby the oleanders had to go before we moved in. I’ll have to post some pictures of my yard, it really is nice. Part of the charm of living in California is the number of different plants we can grow.
Larissa Says:
I hate gardening. I have the opposite of a green thumb. I can kill a freaking CACTUS.
Tori Says:
Your grandmother’s backyard is gorgeous!
Jill Says:
Wow, i wish I had the talent (or a green thumb) to get a yard that pretty.
Suzanne Says:
Oh man, grandmas have the BEST yards!!!
LauraP Says:
Azaleas. Big sigh. So pretty.