June, 2005
After painting the house, Neil thoughtfully removed all of the grass from along the side of the house for me. Our friend Dan O'Connell (aka DannyPants) helped - what a great friend!!!
Above: Neil starting the process. Below: Neil and Dan almost finished!
Below: Dan and Neil unearthed a bunch of bricks along the way... see how we reused these further down the page!
Then we did a little "hardscaping" along the side of the house. First was to lay down some pavers (thoughtfully left for us by the previous owners) in the area where the gas meters are. This area will eventually house our trash/yard waste cans and all will be screened by a trellis.
Hey, speaking of trellises..s..... es's.....anyhow, here's Sandy painting one of four panels that we will attach together and sink into the ground to hide the meters above. We will then grow vines and things to hide the trellis (we haven't decided how we're going to hide the vines yet).
On Monday June 20th, Sandy's birthday (hereby renamed "Dirtday") we received a delivery of topsoil and compost from our friendly neighborhood topsoil dealers.
So THIS is what 5 cubic yards of dirt looks like!
It took us about 3 hours to spread that stuff around the side and front of the house, raising the side up about 4 inches. WHEW! At least it wasn't TOO terribly hot that day. Mmm, nice dark lovely soil!
Later that same day.... we had planned to put in the shrubs we were going to purchase the day before... but the nursery we went to was fresh out of most of the things we wanted! :( We did get one thing: a Blue Girl/Blue Boy Holly, which should grow pretty tall to cover that bare wall, as well as provide some nice winter interest with its evergreen leaves and berries (bird food). Below: Sandy giving "Holly" a drink.
On Friday, June 24, we put the 4 painted panels of the trellis together with "mending plates" (term of the week, see photo below) and the help of our trusty cordless drill, Ole' Blackie (yes I just named it now). Then we (we meaning Neil, as Sandy is but a wee hand model) dug holes for the trellis to live in.
Above: Mending Plate. Below: Neil digs holes.
After a few re-digs and adjustments, we had ourselves a nice, surprisingly straight, surprisingly sturdy trellis, that hid all of the unsightly hoses, meters, basement window, etc..
(roll your cursor over the image above to see what it looks like now, after a few weeks!)
Ok, so you can still see everything if you're coming from the east. Plans are underway for some tall plantings there, maybe some ornamental grasses, so all should be artfully hidden in a few weeks... or years...
(roll your cursor over this one too!)
On Saturday, June 25 Sandy took the flagstones that our neighbors were tossing, and created a little path that goes from the sidewalk to under the porch (where Neil hides the lawn mower, snow blower, bricks, and god knows what else). Note that little Holly on the left seems to be surviving the heat!
July, 2005
Sandy, being an avid birder, HAD decided to use this excellent southern-exposure bed for planting shrubs and plants to benefit birds, specifically hummingbirds. Then she began learning about Butterfly Gardens... and re-worked her plans to include nectar and host plants for local butterflies and their caterpillar children.
During all of this, she has been planting random things here and there... mostly there, as the things she buys are on sale or super-duper clearance and she just doesn't know where the hell thier final growing place will be!
In the meantime, we also decided to border the south and front sides of the house with all of those bricks we dug up. Here's Sandy haphazardly throwing each brick into place (approx. 7.25 inches apart...height of not more than 4 inches...but who's measuring) with her million-dollar hands (and 3 pair of gloves) in the trench that Neil dug (he's become very adept at digging holes and trenches):
Below: Neil models the latest in Chicago brick fashions.
