Projects Update

I have been hard at the landscape projects since the end of February with a goal in mind of what I wanted to have completed prior to spring migration beginning.  It has been a lot of hard work and staying focused on what I had to complete.

The first thing was to tear down a deck and inset hot tub in this area.  I wanted to get the iris moved to this area as they were just emerging. Though I really don't expect many blooms because of the late move, maybe I will get a few.

While I was working in this area I also removed all of the rocks from the disappearing fountain, pumped out the water and did a really good clean and replaced the biological filter.  Fortunately this is a project that only has to be done every 2-3 years.


The next big project was to tear down an arbor trellis.  The ground had settled so much over a couple of years to what I suspect is an underground stream.  A huge tree that fell in that area back during Hurricane Fran left the area sinking.

In that general area, I dug up and removed a large bed of Yellow Flag Iris and extended the Mondo Grass to that area.  I also cleared the area in front digging out all the green liriope.  That area will be replaced with hosta in one level and varigated liriope in the next level.

I was able to use the 4x4's from the trellis to build a retaining wall to enclose the area with the Mondo Grass.  I have two more retaining walls to build as indicated by the white lines.

The rocks that now outline the flower bed where the deck was removed were moved from the area in the above photo.  It was sort of like building the pyramids....moving one rock at a time.  Thankfully a friend had loaned me his hand truck to use that rolled easily in the yard.


 I am now starting to put down new landscape timbers.  I stocked up over the weekend when one of the big box stores put them on sale.

Once I get all the new landscape timbers in place, I will bring in a new load of gravel to place in the walk ways.

It seems like a lot of work to get summed up in a few paragraphs but it has been.  The remainder of the back yard will be worked on slowly but surely over the next couple of months.

The project areas I wanted to complete prior to migration were right on time.  Saturday seemed to be like a door opening and the migratory birds flocking in.  Saturday list included Great Crested Flycatcher, White-eyed Vireo, Red-eyed Vireo, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher and yes, the Hummingbirds have arrived!  I saw one Black-and-white Warbler earlier in the week.  We are going to have lots of rainy days this week so I am going to be finishing up  some indoor projects then break out for some birding next week.