Lawn and Garden Chat

labro · July 2016

Some people expressed interest in talking about/showing off some of their yard projects so I figured I'd start. Facebook helped me out this morning with some sort of "memories" reminder from when we did a major yard overhall in Spring 2015 and I showed off some before and after photos.

What has been the most MM about your yard or garden?

What has been your least MM project?

Any lawn/garden questions?

Any photos?

We bought our house in June 2013. It's on about .65 acres and the backyard was almost entirely wooded. We also had a huge wooded island in the front yard too...think about ten 80-100 foot tall pine trees mixed in with a bunch of poplars, small oaks, birch trees, etc. The ladies we bought the house from had taken care of their yard for years and years and had been really dedicated about keeping it up, adding new plantings, doing all sorts of really pretty things but by the time they sold it they were pretty old and weren't able to keep up with such a massive yard anymore. All the trees in the front yard were over-crowded and way too tall and too close the house. Same deal in the backyard. Overcrowded trees, some leaning over the house, the grass had gone to crap because it was too shaded. A lot of blooming bushes weren't blooming anymore because they were in too much shade. The pond was a wreck. So anyway, we've basically spent the last three years removing trees, replacing the fescue in the back yard with shade bermuda ($$$, also necessary because we had to dig it all up anyway when we put in a new septic field), but we cash flowed it from my bonus, new mulch, moving plants around, adding new ones, and now we're finishing up projects in the front. We just added a small retention wall and we need to mulch the garden island, get new grass to grow, it's never ending!

labro · July 2016

What has been the most MM about your yard or garden?

Probably the fact that everything we do is DIY. We've only hired out for the impossible to do ourselves projects (removing 50+ trees being one of them), and we save up for and cash flow everything.

What has been your least MM project?

Getting new sod for the backyard. I think the project ended up being around $4500 and while it was certainly worth it, I think it's a lot more money than people typically spend on a yard.

Any lawn/garden questions?

What is the favorite thing you have planted in your yard?

For me it falls somewhere between the dogwoods and the azaleas. They don't provide year round color, but it's so so gorgeous in my yard in the springtime and again in late summer when a few of the azaleas bloom again. I can never get enough of all the color that comes out.

Any photos?

Here are some photos from our before/after. I don't really have good ones of the front right now because it's still a work in progress.

Bottom is before and top is after. We extended the grassy area by at least another 30 feet.

This is our ornamental pond area. The pond is in the center of the yard, the large grassy area is to the right of it, and then we have a smaller grassy area to the left.

als1982 · July 2016

I bought our house in 2007 (before I met H). It's in a mature neighborhood with lots of trees = lots of squirrels and chipmunks. I grew up gardening but after two years of trying, learned that they would eat any fruit or vegetable I planted before I could get to it! The only things I ever had success with were lettuce (early in the year so the varmints weren't yet dehydrated and had other food options) and okra (stems to tall and fragile for them to clime). Otherwise, they are everything, including my attempts at onions and garlic! My intent in gardening would be to save money on produce, so expensive boxes and fencing are out.

Other than a few bags of grass seed and one huge bush I ripped out shortly after moving in, we haven't done anything but maintain the azaleas the previous owner planted. Once we're debt free in the fall, I would like to invest in some weed killer and fertilizer to improve next year's lawn.

hoffse · July 2016

We bought our house in August 2014. The previous owners planted a lot of ornamental but extremely low-maintenance trees, shrubs, etc. That's been fantastic for us, because our house is on a half acre or so, much of which is sloped and in the sun, so constant maintenance would be a PITA, especially in the summer.

We pretty much ignored the yard for the first year (other than very basic mowing and weeding) because we were focusing our money on other things. Since January we have spent more time focused on our outdoor space.

We have installed a 35-foot french drain to improve the drainage near our garage. We ended up planting it with some perennial bushes that we bought very tiny at Lowe's. We spent less than $40 to get 48 of them, but with some effort and attention this year they have gotten quite large. We have only lost 1. I am hopeful that they will be mature enough to survive the winter once it gets cold here, around the end of November.

H also built some veggie beds for me, and we have been remarkably successful with tomatoes, peppers, beans, and herbs for a first try. Some things I won't do again, but most things I will. We haven't saved any money with this because of the start-up costs to build the beds, but we have really enjoyed it this year, and we have eaten a lot more fresh veggies than we usually do.

Then in June H built a patio with fire pit in our back yard. On the one hand, this was a completely unnecessary project, and we opted to do it as a way to entice us to spend more time in our back yard (without the expense of a screened-in porch). On the other hand, we really didn't spend a ton on it - about $1500 total - and I suspect it added significantly more value than that to the house. The dirt we moved has also been useful to help level off a different part of our back lawn that was really uneven. If we are able to have kids in the future, then we will have a flat area for a play set.

The one thing that's a never-ending battle at my house is fire ants. I suspect there is a trillion-ant colony that runs under the road and the driveways in our neighborhood, because we can't get rid of them.

hoffse · July 2016

I'll add - I have found that I really enjoy gardening, and my H does too. We will see if it really sticks for us going into the future, but so far, so good. We like it so much that I think the outdoor space will be a really big consideration for the next house we buy. We would really like the space to have a true kitchen garden, possibly with a small climate-controlled area to help us grow things slightly out of season. Obviously none of that is MM, but there are worse hobbies to have than growing your own food

formerlyjessica490 · July 2016

We just did a major overhaul in our front yard this spring. We just bought the house a year ago and have .34 acres of land so it's pretty easy to maintain.

What has been the most MM about your yard or garden?

Well the small size of our yard makes it easy to maintain. We have pretty hearty, self-maintain plants/shrubs/flowers so there's really nothing to do but water them once in awhile.

What has been your least MM project?

Everything I just mentioned above wasn't MM, but now that it's done, it's done and we just need to keep up on the mulch every year or two which is easy. We had the sidewalk re-done, mulch beds edged with granite blocks, ripped out all the over-grown bushes and bought all new shrubs and flowers, and re-did the mulch. We also had the driveway torn out and re-done.

We have some oak trees we need to remove, but we need to recover from all the above!

In the fall we need to aerate and overseed our lawn

Any lawn/garden questions?

Not really, I just google/Youtube things when I have questions

I had posted pictures awhile back, but have since deleted so hopefully you caught them!

labro · July 2016

hoffse said:

I'll add - I have found that I really enjoy gardening, and my H does too. We will see if it really sticks for us going into the future, but so far, so good. We like it so much that I think the outdoor space will be a really big consideration for the next house we buy. We would really like the space to have a true kitchen garden, possibly with a small climate-controlled area to help us grow things slightly out of season. Obviously none of that is MM, but there are worse hobbies to have than growing your own food

We're in the same boat. We have a decently sized kitchen garden right now but I'd love space for a small greenhouse/potting shed. Unfortunately we don't have a great south-facing spot for one so it's gonna have to wait for our next house. One of our must-haves is definitely a large lot where I can pretty much do whatever I want with the yard.

Xstatic3333 · July 2016

Most MM: Well, through work we can purchase plants at wholesale at a couple of great local nurseries. We also sometimes get to take home "rescue plants" that didn't work in a work project and try to nurse them back to health. We save money on the lawn by only using compost, seed from our local extension office, and 1 mild fertilizer application a year-no Scotts or similar-type chemicals.

Least MM: It's important to H to keep the lawn watered, and our home came with a great sprinkler system, but it really drives up our water and sewer rates. Water is about $50 and sewer as high as $75 in the summer when we water the most. I've also blown a lot of money on failed veggie garden experiments, though I do have my fair share of successes as well. Finally, we both love gardening and have a tendency to go a little crazy at plant sales.

Questions: Has anyone out there come up with a good non-chemical method to keep squirrels away? They dig up H's grass seed, they dig in my perennial gardens, and generally impede our progress.

labro · July 2016

@Xstatic3333 It's kind of mean...and I'd do it if you don't have dogs...but you can put liquid hot pepper or pure liquid capsacin sprayed over your garden beds (we've also sprinkled cayenne spice in our bird seed and stuff but it's not as effective). It won't affect birds because they aren't affected by it...but it sure as hell keeps away the squirrels! They do not like it at all!

hoffse · July 2016

labro said:

hoffse said:

I'll add - I have found that I really enjoy gardening, and my H does too. We will see if it really sticks for us going into the future, but so far, so good. We like it so much that I think the outdoor space will be a really big consideration for the next house we buy. We would really like the space to have a true kitchen garden, possibly with a small climate-controlled area to help us grow things slightly out of season. Obviously none of that is MM, but there are worse hobbies to have than growing your own food

We're in the same boat. We have a decently sized kitchen garden right now but I'd love space for a small greenhouse/potting shed. Unfortunately we don't have a great south-facing spot for one so it's gonna have to wait for our next house. One of our must-haves is definitely a large lot where I can pretty much do whatever I want with the yard.

Yeah our back-yard is south-facing, but it's not very large. Our house is set way back on the lot, so we have a huge front yard, and small-ish back yard. There's enough space for the patio/fire pit, a play set, and a little grass, but not much else. Our two raised beds fit well, but adding too many of those would start to affect the value of our back yard for future buyers. We tried to leave enough open grass so that people with little kids and dogs would find our back yard appealing. It's fully fenced already.

Our student loans will be done before we lave this house. Hopefully that will give us the budget to be more selective next time. We simply won't buy a house that's more than a 15 minute commute from work, and that does drive the prices up. That being said, one thing about the southeast is that the land and space is there, and it's surprisingly affordable if you are willing to commute a little bit.

julieanne912 · July 2016

I'm impressed by you all and your DIYing. As for us, our yard has been the least MM thing we've ever done. We are on 1 acre, and nothing was included with the house, just the dirt. Last year, we did a very long and wide concrete driveway, and phase 1 of the front yard landscaping which was the majority of it... grading, adding some berms, 6 trees, sod, rocks, concrete edging, plants, irrigation. Phase 2 (adding another berm with 3 more trees, rocks, and concrete edging) was this spring. Next week, we start on Phase 1 of the backyard, which is some regrading, new soil compaction, an 800 sq ft paver patio, some more concrete work, irrigation, a berm, rock beds, a natural gas fire pit with sitting wall, and a couple trees and shrubs. Phase 2 will hopefully be next year, which is just going to be adding some sod and probably some more plants. In the end, we'll probably be in for close to $80,000.

We actually had a neighbor sell their house shortly after moving in because they didn't realize how much it would cost to do the required landscaping. We actually didn't realize it either, but we have no plans to move as we plan on being in this house until retirement.

Xstatic3333 · July 2016

labro said:

@Xstatic3333 It's kind of mean...and I'd do it if you don't have dogs...but you can put liquid hot pepper or pure liquid capsacin sprayed over your garden beds (we've also sprinkled cayenne spice in our bird seed and stuff but it's not as effective). It won't affect birds because they aren't affected by it...but it sure as hell keeps away the squirrels! They do not like it at all!

Oh that's not too mean! I just don't want to poison them. We do have a dog but I don't really want him in the garden bed, either. Maybe a short fence would deter him and then leave us free to declare squirrel war. Muwahaha.

formerlyjessica490 · July 2016

Omg, I can' stand squirrels and chipmunks....they dig holes all over our lawn and in our garden beds....I just started trapping chipmunks and it's been working well...not sure what to do with the squirrels cuz there are so many! We have a lot of trees lining our backyard which we are going slowly going to start taking down probably next year...once we put up the 5" solid fence next year, I'm hoping they are less likely to get into the backyard...

short+sassy · July 2016

Xstatic3333 said:

labro said:

@Xstatic3333 It's kind of mean...and I'd do it if you don't have dogs...but you can put liquid hot pepper or pure liquid capsacin sprayed over your garden beds (we've also sprinkled cayenne spice in our bird seed and stuff but it's not as effective). It won't affect birds because they aren't affected by it...but it sure as hell keeps away the squirrels! They do not like it at all!

Oh that's not too mean! I just don't want to poison them. We do have a dog but I don't really want him in the garden bed, either. Maybe a short fence would deter him and then leave us free to declare squirrel war. Muwahaha.

My two word answer was "a dog", lol. We certainly don't leave our dog (Izzy) outside, but she is out in our yard pretty often because it is totally fenced in. We have squirrels in our neighbor's tree, but they NEVER come into our yard and I think it is because of her.

Izzy is fascinated by them and will stand under their branches staring at them when they are being active. Which then causes them to get upset and make noise. Which then causes Izzy to be even more interested in them, lol.

LillibetteV · July 2016

All of your "small" yards are making me jealous! Our lot is just under 3,000 sq ft and considering we have a tiny 2-car driveway, a 1950 sq ft house, and a deck we don't really have much leftover as "yard". The previous owners put black weed barrier fabric EVERYWHERE and it was damaged when we bought the place so this summer's project has been to basically gut it all and start from scratch.

We just got our new fence installed yesterday (still waiting on the gates though) and it was pretty MM. We shopped around for lots of quotes and were able to find a good deal on what we need. We live on a main road and so I wanted a fully fenced back/side yard for the dog without breaking the bank. Now that the fence is up we can continue backfilling into it to try and level the yard out a bit. I also wanted to see how the fence would cast shadows so we can pick the best spot for a small veggie garden. Coming home to a new fence last night really got me fired up about making the yard nice!

Right now we are still "that house", but I SWEAR it looks better than it did! We're slowly chipping away at it all lol.

als1982 · July 2016

formerlyjessica490 said:

Omg, I can' stand squirrels and chipmunks....they dig holes all over our lawn and in our garden beds....I just started trapping chipmunks and it's been working well...not sure what to do with the squirrels cuz there are so many! We have a lot of trees lining our backyard which we are going slowly going to start taking down probably next year...once we put up the 5" solid fence next year, I'm hoping they are less likely to get into the backyard...

Yes! Our chipmunks even get into the garage, which leads directly into our basement (with only a door between the two spaces). I fear the day one chews through some drywall, makes it down there and dies.

Xstatic3333 · July 2016

short+sassy said:

Xstatic3333 said:

labro said:

@Xstatic3333 It's kind of mean...and I'd do it if you don't have dogs...but you can put liquid hot pepper or pure liquid capsacin sprayed over your garden beds (we've also sprinkled cayenne spice in our bird seed and stuff but it's not as effective). It won't affect birds because they aren't affected by it...but it sure as hell keeps away the squirrels! They do not like it at all!

Oh that's not too mean! I just don't want to poison them. We do have a dog but I don't really want him in the garden bed, either. Maybe a short fence would deter him and then leave us free to declare squirrel war. Muwahaha.

My two word answer was "a dog", lol. We certainly don't leave our dog (Izzy) outside, but she is out in our yard pretty often because it is totally fenced in. We have squirrels in our neighbor's tree, but they NEVER come into our yard and I think it is because of her.
Izzy is fascinated by them and will stand under their branches staring at them when they are being active. Which then causes them to get upset and make noise. Which then causes Izzy to be even more interested in them, lol.

Haha our dog loves to chase them, but it doesn't seem to deter them when he's inside. Honestly, the bigger problem is with the front lawn, where he rarely goes. There's an oak street tree next door, and the squirrels bury acorns in our front lawn. H has worked so hard to reseed and water the bad patches of the lawn, but squirrels just keep digging it up and then weeds move in.

formerlyjessica490 · July 2016

short+sassy said:

Xstatic3333 said:

labro said:

@Xstatic3333 It's kind of mean...and I'd do it if you don't have dogs...but you can put liquid hot pepper or pure liquid capsacin sprayed over your garden beds (we've also sprinkled cayenne spice in our bird seed and stuff but it's not as effective). It won't affect birds because they aren't affected by it...but it sure as hell keeps away the squirrels! They do not like it at all!

Oh that's not too mean! I just don't want to poison them. We do have a dog but I don't really want him in the garden bed, either. Maybe a short fence would deter him and then leave us free to declare squirrel war. Muwahaha.

My two word answer was "a dog", lol. We certainly don't leave our dog (Izzy) outside, but she is out in our yard pretty often because it is totally fenced in. We have squirrels in our neighbor's tree, but they NEVER come into our yard and I think it is because of her.
Izzy is fascinated by them and will stand under their branches staring at them when they are being active. Which then causes them to get upset and make noise. Which then causes Izzy to be even more interested in them, lol.

My dog wants to go after all the squirrels too! It's funny to watch...maybe that will be the best squirrel control once we get the fence and the dog can go free lol

formerlyjessica490 · July 2016

als1982 said:

formerlyjessica490 said:

Omg, I can' stand squirrels and chipmunks....they dig holes all over our lawn and in our garden beds....I just started trapping chipmunks and it's been working well...not sure what to do with the squirrels cuz there are so many! We have a lot of trees lining our backyard which we are going slowly going to start taking down probably next year...once we put up the 5" solid fence next year, I'm hoping they are less likely to get into the backyard...

Yes! Our chipmunks even get into the garage, which leads directly into our basement (with only a door between the two spaces). I fear the day one chews through some drywall, makes it down there and dies.

Eek, hopefully they won't cause any damage!

brij2006 · July 2016

What has been the most MM about your yard or garden?

Probably our raised garden beds. My parents had leftover lumber from building their deck, so it was treated. Then my dad loaded up the bed of his truck with untreated peat dirt from one of his farms to fill them with. We also had leftover wire to lay on the bottom from our cement project a couple of years back. It took the cost of some diesel fuel for his truck, and a box of screws. Now we have tons of veggies that we eat fresh as well as can and freeze.

What has been your least MM project?

Re-doing a bunch of cement around the house. It was all original to our late 1800's house. So it was cracked and sinking. It all started with a part of the wrap around porch breaking off and it starting to sink and take the porch roof with it. That turned into re-doing that, re-pouring sidewalks leading up to both sides of the house, pouring concrete at the end of our driveway instead of having gravel, pouring a large front patio, new steps out the back door, and a slab to build the yard shed on.

2 mixer trucks full of concrete later.

Any lawn/garden questions?

Any photos?

Our house has come a long way. The previous owners did nothing as far as maintenance on the outside and the lawn/landscaping. It's been a lot of sweat equity for us, but we are very passionate about how the outside of our home looks. So we've done a lot to change it.

short+sassy · July 2016

I only live about 2 miles from downtown, right in the city proper, so my backyard is pretty small compared to a lot of you. They don't even measure lots by acres/partial acres where I live, they measure them by square feet, lol. I think my whole lot (house included) is around 4800 square feet.

With that said, I do have a larger yard than most people in the city because it is a "key lot". Which means that my lot and the lot for the neighbor right behind me were the first lots drawn and are about in the middle of our respective blocks. The backyards for the houses on perpendicular streets attach to our yards.

On to my yard. I have almost no front yard, though we do have a small patch of grass and small flower bed that we put aloe vera and rosemary into. When we bought our house, the backyard was nothing but DIRT. Not one tree, not one flower or bush, not even one blade of grass. So ugly! I gritted my teeth, smiled a brave smile, and called it an "equity opportunity", lol.

Since then, we've:

Laid down grass seed, there is an okay amount of grass but there are still bare areas due to summer heat and dogs. As I've mentioned on other posts, I'm considering artificial grass.
Put in two large sheds. One for us, one for my tenant side
Put in a stone fire pit with seating...that is still in progress. The fire pit is done, but only half the seating is.
Put in a raised vegetable garden. We have found cilantro grows amazingly well. We also have radishes, one type of small pepper (forget which), tomatoes, rosemary, basil, strawberries, and milkweed. The milkweed attracts Monarch butterflies.
Put in a large deck off of our master bedroom.

I'll post pictures tomorrow. I need to get some fresh ones.

Surprisingly, I thought the shed would be the biggest hit with prospective tenants, but it is actually the vegetable garden that almost everyone mentions and admires.

I consider it all MM because we DIY'ed everything and all of it added (I'm guessing) $10K-$15K in equity for a cost of around $6000. Plus many of the improvements also add value to the rental unit.

The most expensive part was the deck. That was $3K for supplies, but my H and I did all the work. With heavy emphasis on my H. He'd helped friends build one before many years ago and also spent a lot of time researching how to do it and do it right. He did an amazing job! It looks so awesome, it's so sturdy, and was exactly what I wanted. I'll stop gushing now, lol.

brij2006 · July 2016

Boo, only one of my pictures is going in.

In the post above is the before when we bought the house in 09.

Here's in 2011 before we re-did a bunch of the cement.

Here's from this spring. Things hadn't greened up much yet.

labro · July 2016

@short+sassy I can't wait to see those photos! Please take one of your fire pit! I'd love a fire pit in our backyard but since it isn't our forever home I don't think we want to go through the effort to do it right. Maybe next go-round.

vlagrl35 · July 2016

Xstatic3333 said:

labro said:

@Xstatic3333 It's kind of mean...and I'd do it if you don't have dogs...but you can put liquid hot pepper or pure liquid capsacin sprayed over your garden beds (we've also sprinkled cayenne spice in our bird seed and stuff but it's not as effective). It won't affect birds because they aren't affected by it...but it sure as hell keeps away the squirrels! They do not like it at all!

Oh that's not too mean! I just don't want to poison them. We do have a dog but I don't really want him in the garden bed, either. Maybe a short fence would deter him and then leave us free to declare squirrel war. Muwahaha.

I have potted flowers on our patio and this is the first year something - I'm not sure what has eaten all my flowers

DH got me some spray that is an animal repellent. You spray it on the pots and flowers. Just started doing it this week. I hope my flowers come back since the roots are still there.

The favorite part of our house is our backyard. We have zero backyard neighbors. Behind our fence is a field and we have woods so you see nothing but green in our backyard. DH had a stamped concrete patio that he designed poured 4 years ago. It includes a fire pit and one day we hope to get a hot tub on there. I think it values at 8k but he did some trade out with the concrete guy - I want to say we paid 3k for it.

LillibetteV · July 2016

Question about vegetables gardens - I'm looking up preplanned gardens to start myself off with but all of them seem to include lettuce! Since lettuce is not something we eat in our house (stomach issues) I wonder if I could swap it for kale or spinach or another dark green? Or do these plans usually have a specific method to the madness?

short+sassy · July 2016

labro said:

@short+sassy I can't wait to see those photos! Please take one of your fire pit! I'd love a fire pit in our backyard but since it isn't our forever home I don't think we want to go through the effort to do it right. Maybe next go-round.

Depending on how you all do the fire pit, it's not that expensive or time consuming (relatively speaking). We don't have pavers or anything like that around it, so there wasn't much digging. I'm guessing it took my H 4-8 hours for the fire pit portion. He spent a few hours here and there over a couple weekends.

The seating part has/will take longer because it is more stones/bricks...and that is even with using big pieces of wood for the "seat" part. 2-3 times longer than the fire pit.

By the time we are all done, it will have cost $450-$500 total.

Funny side note. I'm the only one who has a car. And it is one of those little MINI Coopers. It's built for speed, maneuverability, and fuel efficiency. It is NOT built for lugging heavy cargo, like stones. Despite what you will see in the "Italian Job", lol (movie where they use MINIs to rob a vault filled with gold).

So I never carted back more than 25 stones at a time from Home Depot to our house. And we needed a few hundred of them, lol. However, I drive right past a Home Depot on my way home from work, so it wasn't quite as bad as it sounds.

labro · July 2016

@short+sassy LOL! I can totally imagine. H and I both drive smallish cars but we acquired a 1999 Ford F250 last year from my grandparents. We should've bought that truck years and years ago...now we can haul all the heavy stuff we need! I think it's more we know we won't get a ton of use out of a firepit at this point so why bother going through all the effort. KWIM?

@LillibetteV Are these just like...garden inspiration plans? I don't think lettuce really has a ton of added value other than it being something you eat. There IS value to planting certain herbs like basil and dill near your tomatoes for example because they help to repel some types of bugs...but lettuce as far as I know doesn't do much more than attract the bunnies. I don't think there's any issue to swapping it for something else you prefer!

brij2006 · July 2016

@labro We bought a 99 Ford Expedition last year to pull the car trailer we acquired when my brother passed. My H built removable sides for the trailer and we're able to use it for yard projects yet still fit DD in it. It makes such a huge difference to have a vehicle you can use to haul stuff whenever you want to.

LillibetteV · July 2016

labro said:

@short+sassy LOL! I can totally imagine. H and I both drive smallish cars but we acquired a 1999 Ford F250 last year from my grandparents. We should've bought that truck years and years ago...now we can haul all the heavy stuff we need! I think it's more we know we won't get a ton of use out of a firepit at this point so why bother going through all the effort. KWIM?

@LillibetteV Are these just like...garden inspiration plans? I don't think lettuce really has a ton of added value other than it being something you eat. There IS value to planting certain herbs like basil and dill near your tomatoes for example because they help to repel some types of bugs...but lettuce as far as I know doesn't do much more than attract the bunnies. I don't think there's any issue to swapping it for something else you prefer!

Yes, inspiration plans. I didn't know if it was similar to the herbs being planted near certain things or not, but I'll try swapping it for kale which gets eaten a lot in our house (mostly by the bearded dragon, but the humans eat it sometimes too lol). Oh man the bunnies....we have SO MANY in my neighborhood. If this garden dies I'll blame them instead of my black thumb

short+sassy · July 2016

labro said:

@short+sassy LOL! I can totally imagine. H and I both drive smallish cars but we acquired a 1999 Ford F250 last year from my grandparents. We should've bought that truck years and years ago...now we can haul all the heavy stuff we need! I think it's more we know we won't get a ton of use out of a firepit at this point so why bother going through all the effort. KWIM?

@LillibetteV Are these just like...garden inspiration plans? I don't think lettuce really has a ton of added value other than it being something you eat. There IS value to planting certain herbs like basil and dill near your tomatoes for example because they help to repel some types of bugs...but lettuce as far as I know doesn't do much more than attract the bunnies. I don't think there's any issue to swapping it for something else you prefer!

Oddly enough, my H hasn't had a valid driver's license in years. He moved here from Oregon and never bothered switching his license until it had expired. Then he finds out that Oregon is one of the few states that will not share driving records with other states (something like that) so, once his license had expired, he has to take a driver's ed class to even apply for a new license. Than take the written and driving test. Like a teenager!

He really hasn't needed a car this whole time because both of his previous jobs were biking distance. But now that we are starting to dabble in real estate, especially with rehabs, we are finding more and more need for him to drive.

I sound like his mom, lol, "As soon as you take that class and get your license, we'll find and buy you a nice used pick-up truck on the cheap."

But most definitely. The next vehicle, at least for him, will be a pick-up truck. It will be SO helpful.

As for me, now that I have one, I don't ever want to own anything but a convertible MINI Cooper. I have liked it so much better than any other car I have ever owned. Not so great for construction, but perfect for a gal like myself (without kids) who drives downtown in heavy traffic and on narrow streets almost every day.

AprilZ81 · July 2016

Our only real lawn project was our new sidewalk and patio earlier this summer. It was more of a "want" than a "need" but the appearance and function are so much better!

We did splurge and hired a lawn service to provide fertilizer and weed control on a regular basis and at the right time of year. We thought about doing it ourselves, but by the time we bought the materials and found the time to actually get it done it just wasn't worth it. We paid for a year up front for the discount and I think it was 8-9 services for about $300. Our lawn isn't perfect, but it is a huge improvement over last summer when we were overtaken by crab grass! We are going to pay to have them aerate and overseed this fall to fill in some bare patches, one "patch" is pretty much our entire side yard.

Now that our bathroom project is on hold again (super long story) we may spend a little money to actually do some landscaping in the front. There used to be a planting bed next to the front door but the previous owners turned it into a paver patio. It grows weeds, the pavers are sinking and it gives no curb appeal, so we (I) really want to put some bushes and a smallish tree out front to make it look better.

Lawn and Garden Chat

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