| When we moved into our house, we quickly learned from the neighbors that the previous owner had the most beautiful yard in the street (key word HAD). We had never taken care of a yard before, so the idea of keeping up with it was a little daunting. We had other priorities in mind: fence, front porch, path, front entrance. After a couple of years we have decided that is time to do something about our landscaping, especially after a fairly successful garden that motivated us to work more with plants and vegetables. | Cuando nos mudamos a nuestra mansion, rapidamente aprendimos de los vecinos que la duena anterior tenia el jardin mas lindo de la calle (notese TENIA). Nosotros nunca antes nos habíamos tenido que preocupar de un jardín, asi que la idea de mantener uno era un poco intimidante. Teniamos otras prioridadesen mente, reja, porch del frente, sendero, entrada de la casa. Despues de un par de anos hemos decidido que es hora de hacer algo con la fachada del la casa, especialmente después de haber mantenido una huerta con cierto grado de éxito lo que nos motiva a trabajar mas con plantas y vegetales. |
the circled area is what we’ve focused on so far. This is an old pre-screened in porch photo! Below is the “after” (so far…)
| We hired a professional landscape designer to create a plan for our front yard back in the spring. The plan looked great but the price tag to implement the plan…not so much. My main issue with the price is that I think I can do the job myself (yes, I am that guy). So we paid to keep the plan and now I am working on making it a reality. Please note that we are not just blindly going at it; Leslie and I enrolled in a Master Gardener program with the extension office of the University of Tennessee. We start in January so hopefully we will be ready to work on the yard like professionals by the time we finish later in the spring. | Contratamos a un disenador de exteriors professional para crear un plan para nuestro jardin del frente en la primavera. El plan se veía genial pero el precio para implementarlo….no lo vimos muy bien. Mi problema principal con el precio es que yo creo que lo puedo hacer yo mismo (si, asi soy yo). Asi que pagamos para quedarnos con el plan y ahora estoy trabajando en hacerlo realidad. Por favor notese que no lo estoy haciendo a ciegas; Leslie y yo nos hemos inscrito en una clase de maestros de la jardinería en la oficina de extensión de la universidad de Tennessee. Comenzamos ahora en enero asi que esperamos estar listos para trabajar en el jardín como profesionales al momento que terminamos el programa al final de la primavera. |
| In the meantime I am relocating some old bushes to clear up space and recycle some of the plants we already have. The process is slow: digging a big hole, digging around the old bush to keep as many roots as possible, dragging it to the new place and re-plant it. These bushes are old, so their roots are big and heavy (if you don’t believe me ask my broken shovel). I didn’t have a dolly (yet) so moving the whole first bush took all my strength. After that I bought one, which made moving the other two a little easier. Despite the difficulty of the work, Leslie and I are excited to give our front yard a facelift. Who knows, maybe once we are done our little house will claim back the title of “best yard in the street”! | Por mientras estoy cambiando de lugar algunos de los arbustos que tenemos para asi poder reciclar algunas de las plantas que ya tenemos. El proceso es lento: hacer un hoyo, escavar alrededor de la planta para mantener la mayor cantidad de raíces posible, moverla al nuevo lugar, y re-plantarla. Estas plantas son muy antiguas, asi que las raíces son grandes y pesadas (si no me creen pregúntenle a mi pala rota). No tenia una yegua para mover la primera planta, asi que esa tomo toda mi fuerza. Despues de eso me compre una yegua y mover las otras dos fue mucho mas fácil. A pesar del trabajo duro, Leslie y yo estamos con ganas de cambiarle la cara al jardín y a la casa en general. Quien sabe, tal vez una vez que terminemos, nuestra casita podrá retomar el trono como “mejor jardín de la cuadra”! |
Los Rodriguez Life 
32 responses to “The best yard in the street”
Looks like you will be busy for a while! We have been working on our front and back yards for about two years now, and they are still not quite finished. But in Montana there are only a few months a year that a person can do yard work! Your house is really cute though, even without the best yard on the street!
Thanks! We started working on it right now (December was very warm, the temperature has dropped a little more now in Janueary) to try to get a head start. Mainly cleaning the areas we want to plant and trying to control the bermuda grass and weeds (they are the devil!) Planting and soli conditioning and mulch will come in a few months. Landscaping is not an easy job, that is for sure. We would love to live in Montana, looks like such a magical place…maybe one day,
Wow! That could almost be a full time job…but who would pay you?! Maybe you should come visit Montana!! It’s a great place to visit, a little harder to live here 🙂 at least in the winter!
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I love the screened-in porch!
That was the first “home improvement” we did. Such a great place to hang out! We love it too. Thanks for your comment!
Wow, you really are doing a great job, having the right tools is half the work. I wish you well in your task and will be back to check how you are getting along. We started a vegetable garden 3 years ago and I am ashamed of the lack of attention we give to it, work and weather get in the way so often.
Thanks! You are right, having the right tools for the job simplifies the task so much. We will start working on our veggie garden soon. This will be our second year, and we are starting most things from seed. Lest year the garden did ok, but we think the experience will help us grow a better garden this year.
looks nice!!
Great job! We’ve done similar work and man, it was back-breaking. Totally worth it though!
Just seeing the improvement (even without plants yet) makes us feel so much better. That satisfaction of getting something done yourself is pricesless! Thanks for your comment!
Impressive! Doing something similar to our yard is on my dream/wish list but we are just not that capable. Hubby says that the plants start screaming when I pick them up at the garden center, they know that death is coming. Looks great!
HAhaha poor plants! I am sure you guys can do it. We have been reading, watching videos, and we even decided to enroll in a Master Gardener class with the univeristy extension office to learn more about growing plants in this area. We are really excited! We have never done this before so we are trying to move slowly and pay tons of attention to detail. Thanks for stopping by!
We have an allotment (do you have those in the States?) which is basically a bunch of derelict land that the local council divides up and gives out to a few sorry souls to cultivate and rejoice in.. I’m working my fingers to the bone! I decided that the first rule of allotment upkeep is to ignore pretty much everything that the neighbouring allotment holders tell me I ought to be doing. There’s normally about one of them who knows what he’s talking about, but I’m so ignorant of such matters that I can’t tell good advice from bad. I’m pressing on though. Practice makes perfect!
Thanks for stopping by my blog and liking my chicken salad post. Los Rodriguez Life sounds super busy… Puts me and my husband to shame, that’s for sure! Your garden looks lovely, enjoy!
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