Neglectful

I have been very neglectful of my yard every since Beanie was born.

Last year I was recovering from my c-section so I did not do any spring/summer plantings. It get really hot here so plants have to be watered daily!  Of course, as luck would have it, we had a really wet summer so I probably would not have had to do much...but anyway I am glad I did not have one additional thing on my plate.

Its funny how priorities change.

Before Beanie, I was a very particular about my yard and home's curb appeal. I would spend a ton of time making it look nice and get upset when my yard guy was late mowing the lawn and things did not look picture perfect. Since she has been born however, I do the bare minimum just to keep it looking neat.

I have spent several hours over the course of the past couple of months pruning my plants in preparation for spring so I do get stuff done, but its as when I get the time.

One of the the really annoying chores is trimming some hedges that I have in the front of the house. There is  a row of 5 round-cut holly bushes with 5 square-cut hedges behind then. They need to be trimmed about 2-3 times a year.  I used to be fanatical about keeping them trimmed, but the past year I have just let them go. They grow slowly (thank goodness!) so kept their shape for quite a while, but the last couple of months they have just been looking ragged and its been driving me nuts.

I asked my yard guys and they quoted $85 an hour to do the work, I figured it would take about 2 hours. Yikes, that is a lot of $!

So I figured I would just bite the bullet, do it myself and get it over with!

With Beanie in school every day of the week, I do get some time after I drop her off to do a few things before I begin my work day.

So, I decided to divide and conquer!

Yesterday I attacked the round holly bushes with my hedge scissors, and today I did the square ones with my electric trimmer.

It was quite a task since they were really overgrown, and it took about 45 minutes to trim and clear all the debris. My arms were aching and I was hot and sweaty.

But I got it DONE!!!

The front yard looks so much better.

Now all I need is to put out some pinestraw and it will look neat. Last year I had the yard guys lay the straw since I could not do any hard labor, but I may do it myself this year as I have done in the past. It is  just a pain to get the straw in the trunk of the car...it makes such a mess.

I am not doing window boxes in the patio this summer simply because we like to sit outside and the flowers attract too many bees. I will also skip the herbs I grow in pots because they need a lot of attention.  I may do seasonal flowers in the flower bed since Beanie likes flowers and can use her watering can. Last year the flowers grew from seeds of the previous year so I did not have to do anything.

I also have a Japanese Maple tree planted really close to the house by the idiotic previous owner. Those trees get big and while it looked pretty the first couple of years its now getting big. About 2 years ago I had it trimmed but its grown back and I am sadly faced with having to cut it down since I cannot keep spending money every year to trim it.

I hate doing that since i love tress :-(

If you recall I cut down a large magnolia tree two years ago since it was way to close to the house and getting too large. As I said the previous owner had no concept of what trees to plant where!

I called my yard guy today to come by next week and give me an estimate. I have a some trees in the back yard as well which need to pruning, so he can give me an estimate.

Lets see...I am hoping going forward I can give some attention to my poor neglected yard!