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New Home, New Garden

We finally bought a house after our move across country from the Midwest five and a half years ago.  It's taken us all month to get into the house and start to get things put away.  Moving seven people while two are headed back to college was not an easy feat. 

While this house is not super fancy, one of the things we loved about the house was the very large yard.  We have seven city lots in fact.  One of the things that we loved the most about home ownership was being able to garden.
I'm not a fan of those really tall arborvitae trees on the left of this picture.  We have several of them around the property, mostly right up on the foundation and causing trouble with the house.  I personally don't like them and call them funeral trees, because they are what every cemetery has.  I'd like to just reserve them for funerals for now.  This one, isn't coming down just yet. 

That big, pickery evergreen bush that takes up the side of the house had to go!  The access to the crawl space is behind it and there are five-foot thistles all over in that bush!
One of the best things that we have learned since moving West and living is the mountains, is how to pull out trees with our truck.  This bush is really no different.  The most difficult thing about this yank out, was trying to get into the trunk of the tree to attach the chain!  This is one pickery bush!


Once out, we decided to use a cord (a hose would work too) to make the shape of the bed and then had to break up all the dirt in the new flower bed that we were adding.  When we returned to the Midwest this summer, I dug up a bunch of perennials from my mom's garden (many had been split from my own garden there) and brought them back.  I've been watering them in pots ever since, so was really excited to use them in this bed.

I also added some daffodil bulbs that we found when we were making another access on the other side of the house.  I can't wait to see those come up in the spring! 

We spent $44 on a truckload of mulch (we had plenty to add to another bed and saved some, to finish this one off when we get that other funeral tree out) and then bought a big container of Preen to prevent weeds from coming back.  I'm so excited to have a nice clean, mulched hosta bed! 

Here's another look at the before and after.  We plan to put a decorative tree in the middle of the bed, as well as a Japanese Maple tree off the left once that funeral tree goes.  Both will add some height and shade on this side of the house.
Stay tuned for more of our DIY projects on our new house!  Lots more to come!
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