First blooms of spring

While completely uprooting this city-suburban girl and moving her to the country some seventeen years ago created a fair share of bedlam moment stories, it also created beautiful more ones than I ever deserved.

Yes, I’ve “almost” acclimated to country living and whenever I doubt my decision, which occurs mainly on our drive into “town,” I just step outside, inhale the fresh air, listen to the harmony of birds and let my soul breathe.

Our acreage is breathtakingly beautiful.

So encouraging - The porch that took 17 years to build

I mean post card beautiful, isn’t it? With rolling woods and the wrap arond porch that took 17 years to build, it’s a a dream, until you get to our lawn.

How hard is it to care for a lawn?

Well, if you take lessons from us, incredibly difficult. I am “sure” it has something to do with our wooded acreage all around us, but it’s been years since we have had beautiful grass to walk on. We’ve tried. We really have, but it’s been  challenge. This is our year to change all that.

Having finally completed our front porch, landscaping is our next outdoor priority. It’s embarrassing to admit, but we haven’t done much since we built our house and the porch has been completed for nearly one year and we’ve thoroughly enjoyed it, even without any landscape, but again, we’re ready.

The beautiful outdoors before any landscaping

When we called a lawn guy to come tell us what to do and he pretty much informed us there was no help for this aspiring lawn.

Yes, his exact words, “Kill it all first and then start over.”

Then he quoted me an astronomical price for what he’d charge to do the killing and I knew it was the perfect time to give Spectracide a try. I will be using this weed and grass killer to begin anew and hopefully at this time next year, I’ll feel lush grass between my toes.

I am thrilled with the fact Sprectracide kills in as little as 3 hours, works straight down to the root and is offering a great coupon and rebate. In our side yard, we have some Poison Ivy growing and that needs to be attacked immediately. There is no waiting around when that comes into play and this will do the trick quickly.

I’ll be honest; tackling our yard is pretty much an overwhelming task for me, so I’ve broken it down into layers of what I can do on my own and then those tasks for which I need help.

This back yard area I can attempt on my own and that is what I plan on doing first.

Taking on some landscape challenges

This area where my table sits is my project over the next month or so. I need to kill all the weeds, add mulch, add additional shade plants and possibly a border and create something cute in that spot. I think it will be beautiful and serene. The perfect place for a little tea party.

Spring landscape projects

First, this tree needs to go. Years ago, we had the huge oak cut down due to the possibility it might land on our house. I told the men to keep the base because it would be a great tree house base for our young boys. Well, that tree house never got built. They climbed it a few times, but now it houses all kinds of country critters that you don’t want to see pictures of here on this blog. Our 18 year old son has been tasked with taking a chain saw to it.

For the front yard, I am going to enlist someone with an extensive knowledge of plants to draw up a design for area around our porch, but we will do the work. I know my strengths and weaknesses when it comes to tackling outdoor DIY and some one needs to tell me what plants flower year round and which bushes grow to certain heights etc. If I tried it on my own, the result would be a mismatch of plants and bushes.

Sand volley ball court before landscaping

Lastly, we’ll be getting the area surrounding our sand volleyball court a grooming. Yes, we have more outdoor work than I can possibly tackle this summer, but it’s all about baby steps, right?

It’s the perfect time of the year for you to give some outdoor gardening a try. I can’t even tell you how much I love having cut flowers and a cut flower garden is #1 on my wish list, not to mention spending time outside is just a therapeutic way to spend the weekend.

What are some of your outdoor spring time plans?

Anyone want to come help me figure out what to plant? What are your favorites that I should include in our yard? A few of you gave me some wonderful suggestions for around the porch and I’m starting my list.

To all of my yard warriors, whether you are after a total yard overhaul or just want to keep your yard looking its best, visit the Spectracide Facebook page for tips and savings to get started.
This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Spectracide. The opinions and text are all mine.