You’d think that with such a small backyard, mom and I wouldn’t have any trouble keeping it looking nice and neat and pretty. You’d be wrong. For some reason, every year, the backyard just gets away from us, requiring several weekends of hard labour in the burning sun to bring everything into line. *sigh*

This weekend is no exception. Here is today’s project:

We’ve really let this corner get out of control. That giant bush? In the very back? Was originally a four-inch culinary rosemary plant purchased at Rite-Aid, or someplace like that, many years ago. It out grew the pot we originally put it in, so we planted it in the ground, along with a (surely long dead) sage plant. Rosemary apparently really likes it around here, as it’s simply exploded!

That other huge bush next to it is the same as the Behemeth, but for some reason it’s only spread out not up. Regardless, I hate whatever kind of bush that is, and will eventually remove it. Today, however, is just a trimming day. It was still fun, though. I love nothing more than chopping and hacking away at overgrown shrubbery! I trimmed back both the rosemary bush and the Behemeth’s Little Brother, discovering in the process several round paving stones mom and I had placed there years earlier, and the small square patio where the other tree used to be, and where we placed the mosaic birdbath we made eons ago. We took the paving stones out, but kept the little square patio, because we rather like it.

Once we had everything trimmed up and cleaned out, we dumped two bags of Earthgro decorative groundcover bark on the ground and spread it out. We used our third bag to spread around under the tree. A simple change, but what a difference!

Ahh, so much better! Still a lot of work to be done (mostly trimming, cutting, hacking and eventually removing large obnoxious shrubbery), here, but it’s good enough for one Saturday morning!

After finishing our project, and relaxing on the deck with some yummy coffee, we took a quick look at the garden:

We have several nice, big blossoms on the eggplant:

and the tomatos are still producing like mad. Check out this guy:

The zucchini plants, however, are about as close to being dead as a couple of plants can be. I have no idea what happened, but the zucchini are tiny and many of them have rotten on the vine.

Frankly, I give up. Thankfully my grandparents are growing tons and tons of zucchini, and are happy to share with us.

Until next time … cheers!