Our Grass Woes

I don't mean to brag but I have the cutest garden and flower beds.

Look at my sweet little wren.

The deck is darling.

My green house. Oh my!

I adore my garden ornaments.

I struggle with the perennials but they do put on a good show every now and then.

The grass has been a constant battle.
The grass looked great before we moved in 23 years ago.
It's looked terrible since then.

There were several spots in the front and in the back that were completely dead.
I think it is where the roofers threw shingles off of the roof in November.

It all looked okay by the end of the fall.
I raked five times to make sure leaves weren't sitting on the grass.
I'm still bitter about it. (Kidding - not kidding.)
 Every year it feels like we are starting over.
Things looked very bleak at the start of the spring.

Our lawn guy moved to Houston so I put out an all call for a new one.

Don't be fooled by the green. That is not grass. It's weeds.

The great Crepe Myrtle Massacre.

We have a tendency to rock any area that has refused to grow grass.
If we add anymore stones, it will look like we live in the desert.
I wanted to re-sod again. This would be the 4th or 5th time.
The new lawn guy came to assess the atrocity.
He literally laughed at our back yard. We have hit a new low.
He recommended an aggressive treatment of something to treat a fungus and some weed and feed.
We had been doing all organic. Clearly it was not working so he has fired us from caring for our own lawn.
We cannot be trusted.

After a month, things are starting to regrow.
An area that was St. Augustine is coming in with Bermuda.

It's progress.

I will keep you updated on this riveting saga.
Do you have grass woes?
Katie

Retaining Wall and Stairs

We have been very blessed that we've been able to do a few needed things around the house this year. Replacing our aging and sagging retaining wall was one of the not so fun things we just had to do.

The workmen were here over Christmas for about 4 days. The same 4 days I was sick.
Oh... the noise!

The new wall is pretty.

Since then the yard has been in a state.

Bill wanted to redesign the way the stairs and wall went down to the lower yard. In order to do this the crew had to dig out about 16 cubic feet of soil.
 I felt so sorry for them.
The end result was a new layer of dirt pretty much all over the top level of the yard near the wall. 
It was winter so I didn't really care.
But, we didn't have a lot of rain this past spring and summer so
the grass hasn't really spread.

We were so focused on the bathroom we didn't have time to even spread a little seed around. 
Don't even get me started on the weeding and trimming that was neglected. 
Needless to say I haven't been spending a lot of time in the yard.
 Bill designed and built a new deck and stairs.

He finally finished in early summer so now we have this cute little seating area.

I love it.

He stained it match the wall not the other deck.

  

 

 

I know how blessed I am to have a husband that is so creative and handy.

 I finally tamed the jungle that is my trumpet vine. I brought this vine with me from our house in Lubbock, Tx. 20 years ago. I love trumpet vine because it reminds me of my grandmother but if I had it to do over again, I would get a hybrid instead. They don't spread as much. My next door neighbor hates all the runners in her yard. 
I really tried to collect the seeds each year at the end of the season so that it wouldn't spread but it did anyway.
 Yikes. 

We have missed sodding season here so I threw some bird seed out on the bare spot.  It always sprouts under the bird feeder anyway. There is some Rye grass in the mix so 
if we get some rain it will start to sprout and I will at least have something green.

Not that we are outside anyway!
August in Texas isn't the time to sit in the yard. 
We break a sweat just getting ready in the morning. 
Dog days of summer for sure.
We got an unusual cool snap this weekend. 
It makes me long for fall so we can get some sodding done.
Katie  

Savvy Southern Style