landscaping: green envy

Yes, you read that right. I am not green with envy, I have green envy.

I miss our old grass.

Grass, that just a couple months ago was as green as green can be.
Greener than romaine lettuce and dollar bills.

Now, our grass is brown, straw-like and spiky.

Piper (who is finally potty trained) is confused by this crunchy mess that once was a luscious-comfy medium for rolling, peeing and playing.

And, our investment in perennial plants this year might be loss. #deadforever

This realization that our approx. $200 investment in perennials this year might be a complete waste, reminds me of a conversation I had with my mom early in the spring. a foot-in-mouth realization. 


My mom spent an entire afternoon digging up her hostas, splitting them and replanting them. I think my comment was something along the lines of..."Mom, why are you wasting your time? Just go buy some more hostas to plant." (Savanna, why don't you put your foot in your mouth and shut up.) 


Plants are not cheap! Why not be resourceful and split overgrown hostas? That's a great idea to save money!

Let's reminisce on this green wonderfulness, and all of our hard work this spring...

Ian and I spent the first beautiful March day adding stones around our landscaping. (photo was taken after new mulch and added perennials)

Then, on a another nice spring day, we went to a local florist and picked out a car full of perennials.

We bought an assortment of hosta, stonecrop and succulent (hen and chicks) plants.

We I went around the house and placed the plants where we I thought they would look best and began digging.

Ok...Ian began digging. Piper helped him and I took the pictures. I'm not kidding you, by the time I got done taking the "before" pictures, Ian was done planting. He is Mr. speedy-planter-extroardinaire. (or I'm a slow picture taker?)

Ian was going so fast, Piper couldn't even keep up.

I received some hesitation about choosing hen and chicks for our landscaping because they really do well in more "desert" like environments, in rock gardens and in the sun.

Well let me tell you, it couldn't of been a more perfect year for my hens. They are growing their little chicks like crazy!

I love these things! Next year I would love to plant them in pots or planters like this:

via

The stonecrop also looks great still, but our hostas are toasted.

In fact, our stonecrop plants are doing so well that I decided to trim and few stems and bring them inside. I did a little experiment that I can currently report as a success. I put the stems in a apothecary jar with some water on Saturday, and they haven't died yet!

After our planting was complete, Ian decided we needed new mulch. The next open weekend, Ian got some mulch and started mulching!

(yes, Ian is wearing the same outfit as the above photos, but it is a different weekend!)

Before

After

Mulch does make a big difference:

Our yard looked great until mid-July. It's a little depressing to think that all of our hard work has dried up, but there is always next spring to try again!

Please rain.

XO!