Yard and Garden Update!

Hey Party People!!!

T-minus 1 day to demolition! Holy cow! I am so exciting I can barely contain myself! Woo hoo!

We WILL send off the old kitchen in the most appropriate way. However, first some updates on our Grub problem!

FRONT YARD:
Well, I think it is safe to say --- the Grub killer worked!

Here is a picture of our front yard about 10 days after seeding:


Some little grassies are coming up:


Here is the yard yesterday, about 6 weeks later:


Very nice! We do have a fair amount of weeds in there, which we will try to remedy this week.

So, props to the 69% of you (9 folks -- ha ha) who voted in our poll that our grass would come back!

Also, FYI:
For those of you in Illinois at least, about this time of year -- June 15 -- is when you should grub protect your yard (according to the nursery here in town). See, beetles come, lay eggs, then next year, you have grubs and your yard is kaput. So, we will be putting down grub killer tomorrow!

FLOWER BED:
Remember last year, in July, when we planted the perennial garden along the side of our house? Here it is, at the beginning of June, after I cleaned it up:


And here it is today! Unfortunately, our peony already bloomed, so you don't see it here:


But here are some of the other beginnings of flowers:

Two of our shrub roses didn't make it through winter, so I replaced those last week. More pictures to come.

Another small tidbit: As mentioned, when Adam finishes events at work, he usually will bring me a flower arrangement from the event. Here is the latest, a FREAKY HUGE basket filled with house plants:


I am now desperately attempting to keep the plants alive. Wish me luck -- I have a purple thumb. Also, to show the size of the basket, see Exhibit A below:


That's all for now folks!

GRUB HUB!

In year one, we had the attack of the carpenter ants. This year: you guessed it -- Grubs! And maybe, a mole.

Our front yard had been looking pretty sickly. So, we took a picture and brought it into the local Nursery:


The Nursery guy said: "That grass is dead and it ain't comin' back."

He said we probably had grubs. When we described the ground's bumpy texture, as if someone had been digging it up , he said "You probably have a mole. Moles work close to the surface and are looking for meat".

Apparently, to moles, meat=grubs. Hooray for us. Moles are freaky.


So, a day of shopping turned into a day of yard work. We collected our supplies and set out to digging up the front yard. Boy, was it good times. I got the luxurious job of raking out the clumps of dead grass while A overturned the soil (eventually A helped declumpify).


Sure enough, we's gots grubs. Yum.

Here I am after the discovery of one of several bazillion grubs:


Grubs are pretty gross looking. For awhile I was collectin' my grub friends in a bucket, to see how many I could collect. After hours of this, I got sick of that game (not to mention, disgusted) and dumped my squirmy buddies in a bag of dead grass. GRUBS: you made the bed, now lie in it!! Darn you grubs!

Three grueling hours and six Advil later, the yard was successfully dug up, seeded, grub protected and fertilized. Here it is, after:


Now it's just water and wait.

We should see some new grass in about 10 days, if this works. Fingers crossed! The neighbors are probably so glad we finally did something about our disgraceful yard.

In kitchen news, today our shopping plans commenced and we were off to the tile shop to select backsplash tile. Jamie the tile lady helped us pick out a super contemporary tile that I am pretty pleased with. Here is a picture of it in a sample room (tile behind toliet area):



Here is a close up of the mosaic:


We will do the top half of the backsplash in the above mosaic and the bottom in big blocks of the same tile, to save our budget:


With the wizardry of Photoshop, I have created this picture of what our finishes will look like together:


Pretty sweet. We are getting excited.

No permanent decision on the floor, but we are thinking it might be this:


We know we are getting a Wilsonart floor, which is a floating, tile floor. This color is mostly grey with a little bit of warmth in it. I think it will compliment the other finishes well.

I think that is about all for now... we'll be back in at least ten days with an update on our grass (see NEW POLL above)!! Wish us luck!

C + A

PS: Still waiting to find out the answer about our LG appliances....