This Week's Cottage Projects and MORE Pictures

 

 

I was at a jewelry party last night, chatting with a group of women I didn't know very well.  Isn't it funny how one topic will get everyone talking.  My friend Robin introduced me as Jackie, her friend from Florida who just bought a TINY HOUSE in town!  Well, those words, TINY HOUSE, ignited the room.  Laura, Robin's best friend had all kinds of questions.  Her daughter, Cassie, said she had been looking at the Pinterest Tiny House boards and was in love with them.  Everyone was either horrified or excited by the fact the new house was only 530 square feet. 

This week I spent hours in the yard, many of them accompanied by my Mom who spent a couple mornings with me helping me to cut back ground covers in the front yard where the English ivy was growing over the boulders and covering them up.  I love the look of the boulders, so the ivy had to go!  Then I refreshed the pea gravel on that side of the driveway.  Too bad it was tiny--more sand like than pinkie nail size--compared to the last batch of gravel from Menards.  I hate when that happens--especially when I was hauling 20 bags of it in my 20 year old minivan along with the last of the edging blocks for the Koi Pond. 

 

 

Now don't get too excited.  The Koi Pond is just the previous owner's nickname for the planting bed to the left as you pull in the driveway.  The "pond" is an area of pea gravel sitting in the middle of a mulched berm.  She had always wanted to put some painted wood koi in here to "swim".  I loved that idea, so, I finished off the pond with some Menards's edging along with some rocks and bricks to keep the mulch out of the pond.  I moved the round lily pads (stepping stones) from the front path that I worked on too!  Now, I need about a dozen of these to go in the pond along with some cute turtles and frogs sitting on the lily pads.  Just look at the shipping on those fish to see why I will have to come up with another idea!!!!

The last big project this week was on the two black stone pathways--you can see them in the picture above.  This is going to be a trouble spot as the supplier of that black aggregate is now out of business in town and the only other product I can find that comes close is the fish aquarium gravel you get at the pet store.  (Plus, the size is not the same and the fish stuff is shiny and what I have is more of a flat black.)  That will be a very expensive way to refresh the walks.  I have it in two areas in the back yard too!

So, what I did to help was the put a better separation in the lower path--putting those five square pavers across the path to separate the pea gravel from the black stone.  On the upper path, I had to cut the black plastic tube edging that goes under the driveway, lift it up an inch or so and then backfill it to hold the pea gravel out a bit better.  I also cut back the ivy and other ground covers in this planting bed so show the boulders and the other edging.  This planting bed may become known as my Creeping William/Charlie bed.  Jan, the previous owner said she always reached a point in the summer where she just threw up her hands.   Since I just started the battle, I may make it to the Fall with that war!

This week's yard waste haul was two 30 pound cans and five 50 pound bags.  Yes, not all of that was really yard waste--much of it could have gone on my compost pile.  BUT, that is full already!!

The lilies are about done, but, the Russian Sage is still gorgeous!