Deadlines - Part 5

The deadline is fast approaching...

Over the long weekend we finished all the planting.

The various annual beds are all planted and have cocoa mulch applied. I love the smell of that stuff...

The sunny beds, like the one in the foreground with the hibiscus in the middle, contain marigolds or dianthus, depending.

The shady ones, like in the background, contain impatiens of various colors.

It's also amazing how the perennials in the background bed have already filled in since my post a few weeks ago.

And we planted some more hosta along the driveway to soften the lines of the fence.

Now the real party preparations can begin...

A Sad Day

Today was a sad day.

She's been with us for every step of the Fix Farrington experience up to this point.

It was time for her journey to continue in a different direction from ours.

The spirit was willing, but the body just wasn't capable anymore.

Until the Rainbow Bridge...

Deadlines - Part 4

It took us most of Saturday afternoon and into the early evening, but the gigantic mulch pile is finally gone.

There was a little delay late in the day when we re-evaluated the health of several shrubs.  When we created the plant list a few weeks ago, not everything had started to bud out yet. At the time it wasn't obvious that several of the Ninebarks in the front hadn't survived the winter. And over the past week it became obvious that one of the Taunton Yews was toast as well.

So I made another trip to Gertens to get the three replacements. Not surprisingly the place was a zoo at 3:30 on a beautiful Saturday afternoon. But I survived to tell the tale.

Today the plan is to get started on some of the annual beds. That's going to take longer than just a single day, though...

In the meantime here are some photos of what's blooming elsewhere in the yard.

The Apple trees are in fine form this year.

The new Magnolia that I planted last weekend will be magnificent in years to come. The blooms are already mostly spent and look a little tired, but this one remains largely intact. It's nearly as big as my hand!

And the new Hibiscus that anchors one of the annual beds had already recovered nicely from being transplanted and is obviously happy in its new home. Once the tulips are done blooming, this bed will be filled with annuals to surround the hibiscus.

Deadlines - Part 3

Everybody helped in between activities throughout the weekend. We managed to get the back and side yard done. The front bed and driveway beds remain.

At the lower right is one of the annual beds that will get tackled soon, too.

There are a few trees and shrubs left to be planted throughout the week.

I didn't count up how many I already planted (it's 25, plus another 5 or 6 that were moved - ed), but these 8 remain and will go along the driveway. They'll replace shrubs that have been destroyed by the wascally wabbits...

And some decent progress was made against the enormous pile of mulch.

This is what remains at the end of the day Sunday.

Deadlines - Part 2

It may be difficult to hold back your emotions from the sudden change in posting frequency, but there's a deadline looming. And SWMBO, Jr is in charge...

The day after we picked up the plants, this happened.

He managed to squeeze in between the house and the fence to drop his load.

And here's the view from the other end of a 30 cubic yard pile of mulch.

That's the same amount as we had delivered several years ago.

It looks bigger this time.

Probably because I'm older...

That wheelbarrow won't move itself, so it's time to get to work!

Deadlines

It's been a long time since my previous post. There have been many deadlines in other parts of my life that have gotten in the way of the house. Or have meant that I just didn't have the emotional energy to get any projects done.

Well, now there's a looming deadline that requires work to be done around the house...

Earlier in the week I was stylin' in a big van.

They didn't have a "load-and-go" truck available at the time, so I took this instead. It worked out just fine, though. Everything was inside and protected from the wind.

Had I not paused to eat supper, I'd have had it back in the minimum rental period.

It's actually a good deal because for somethings the delivery charge is way more than the rental cost for this van for 90 minutes...

And here are the lovely items it was used to self-deliver.

Mostly, they are the replacements for the various dead plants resulting from the past couple of winters.

A few are the "players to be named later", as it were. They will replace some shrubs that died years ago and were removed, but were not replaced at the time.

The plan/hope is to get these installed over the weekend, because there's a deadline coming where the yard has to look good...