Keeping Up With The Neighbors

At this point I'm ashamed to say that our yard didn't look any better than the next door neighbors, but ours was temporary, not so for next door. This is what the side yard looked like right after we had the chain link put up. We didn’t have any proper wood stackers, which we have since remedied, and so we piled the wood along the fence. Since then we added another section of fence (about where the blue tarp is)and a gate to make a rectangular dog run. We set aside ten feet in the back corner to stack our wood in.

An Unsightly View...

This is a view of the front yard on the left side. There is the piece of log that was never removed. What an eyesore! The tree is another Silver Maple (Acer saccharinum). This area is a gentle slope of about 3 to 3 ½ feet. I am considering planting some evergreen trees or shrubs there to hide the nasty view. The house next door is a rental and the landlord (slumlord actually) never does any repairs or maintenance on the place. How do you like the blue and green tarp covered leanto?

Some people are like slinkies...

Not really good for anything, but you still can't help but smile when you see one stumble down the stairs. (Unknown)

And believe me we did our share of stumbling last winter so that is why I made this first attempt at making easy to walk down stairs. This also is a view of the parking pad and retaining wall. As you can see when we had the parking pad made it pretty much denuded the area of any plant life, except a wild hydrangea bush and a couple of irises. In front of the car you can see what remains of the stump from the oak tree that was felled and left in the yard by a previous owner. The river rocks were brought in by the people we bought the house from. At the top of the stairs you can still see a portion of what used to be the driveway.

A Path That Leads to Nowhere...

This is a view of the lower yard near the front door. It was mostly covered by asphalt when we moved in. I had to place a berm where the rocks are to keep the rainwater from washing away the yard. Just below the propane tank the dirt poured out onto a lovely set of steps and a pathway made out of rocks that led to the backyard. There was another large tree in the corner just opposite or the propane tank that one of the previous owners had cut down to a stump. The ground, shown in the lower right hand corner, is about 3 feet higher than the pathway and is held in place by a rock wall. The other side of the path is bordered by another, lower, rock wall and there is vinca planted all over there; it’s also where the maple and evergreen trees are planted.

A slippery slope

This is the view from the front door looking up the yard to street level. It is an even slope, and used to be filled with native ferns before we had to have the septic system replaced after that the yard never looked the same. They had a lot of excess dirt and when they tried to place it evenly around it killed all the plants. The ferns are making a slow comeback but it will take years for them to fill back in if ever.

A Closer Look...

This is a close up of the same side. You have a closer look at both of the biscuits (a section of log), and you can see one of the evergreen trees that were there before we moved in. Unfortunately, it was later destroyed when we put in the chain link fence; however, this is the very sort of tree I am considering replanting in the same area. I have to be careful what I choose because the power line partially runs over this area.

Things Keep Slipping Away

In this photo you can still see the stairs to the deck on the right side of the house, and the rickety fence that surrounds the property. There is a row of evergreen trees (look like pine trees) on the right side of the lot, but most of them were still small, so I had to stake them to keep them from growing sideways down the embankment. That split rail fence section is on our property line, and that is the only piece of it anywhere on the lot. All along that embankment there grows a shrub with a leaf shaped like a heart; it's fuzzy, and coarse, and I have no idea what it is I only know that in the summer grows so densely it hides the neighbors yard, and makes a wonderful privacy hedge. It can easily get out of control, and suckers profusely, and if I’m not out there cutting it back once a week it will take over the yard. You will also notice that there are some tree stumps (towards the bottom of the picture)where we cut down pine trees, and we also had both of the Silver Maples pruned back because one was so large it was overhanging onto the neighbors roof, and the other was too dense, and the limbs were entangling themselves with the other tree. You can only see the stump of one because the arborist misunderstood me, and cut the second one all the way down to the ground. I was furious; now it's more like a shrub than a tree