Once again, our jungle decor in the front of the house was getting out of hand. We have tried for four summers now to get this nice and under control. And it always fails. There are some very seriously entrenched vines and weeds and it’s just hard to stay on top of it! Even bringing the goats out to graze it, well, the weeds are winning.
It’s mostly the front of the house and the eastern side of the house. Just dreadful. Especially to a gal that loves gardens and landscaping and all. So I was talking with our friend Justin and he said he knew what we needed to do. Total whack down, many layers of cardboard and a HEAVY load of mulch. And then a good season of NOTHING growing and diligence on any little poke-through bad boys.
And since he wanted a couple piglets from our last litter, I said, hey, how about a trade and he said sure! Justin loves to trade… so we got some labor in exchange for a couple piglets and I think I’m the happier one! Because he really can clean out a weed patch!!! Take a look!!!
(Please excuse the OSB patch over the window… I have been meaning to paint that so it’s not so glariing and I wanted to add like a piece of trellis or something… not totally sure yet. It’s just gotten away from me this season, too!) I need to paint the stove pipe too! A zillion things to do! It’s on the list…
Doesn’t it look so much nicer! We went and hauled a couple Sarge loads of free mulch from the next village over, they have many huge piles of the stuff! I think we might go get another load or two as well… just because we can use it in a lot of places! I hope this works. If not, the next step is some sort of commercial weed killer and I hate to do that but I just can’t stand to see it all crazy wild!
I wish I had taken a before picture of the courtyard, but it was pretty out of control as well. Jessy and I have tried to keep it up, but then just got a little overwhelmed with other things. Justin and his crew worked to get it all nice and tidy. It looks fantastic! I sure would love to have a nice collection of perennials in this area but you just have to take things a little at a time on a tight budget. We have a few things trying to get established… it won’t take too much longer, I hope!
All tidy! We mowed and weed whacked and pulled out all the weeds that resisted! It’s just a ton better. The goats were SOOOOOO happy! Since all the clippings and pullings went over the courtyard fence!
We like having helpers and it always amazes me what young men can do when they set their mind to a task. We had a dead little crab apple tree over by the hog pen that I was hoping to get taken down before winter. Just, without a chainsaw, that is a tough task with just an ax. But Brayden decided he could do it and within an hour, he had that bad boy down and was working on getting it cut up for the fire. A couple brothers helped here and there, but he did most of the work! All the dead limbs got burned, but the three big main trunks got stored up for our winter wood supply.
Another inductee to the Windhaven Hillbilly Boy Camp! He even cut all the grape vines off the little garage shed and managed to get this dead log bit that was jammed in the ground, loose!
And he and Maggie worked to get all the junk and trash out of the garage so she could start to really work on her garage makeover!!! (Pictures later, she’s really coming along nicely!)
Of course, there was lots of time to relax and play a little bit too! Travis is showing us how to get a good swing on the old walnut tree!!!
What a great couple days of effort!!! The place looks fantastic….
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