Spring Cleaning

This weekend I decided to begin the arduous task of preparing my yard for spring. That may sound kind of silly... but for me that entails things like weedwacking the patio, blowing the leaves from the lower forty into the leaf beds, getting my overflowing urn ready to turn on, etc.

I started my Saturday morning at my beloved Grower's Outlet. I initially had the idea that I would replace 10 or so dead Pittosporums (Japanese Mock Orange). The Grower's Outlet only had the variegated version, or the compact version. I decided to buy two of the compact varietal and see what happened. I also, of course, managed to buy a few other plants: a new painted fern (only to get home and realize mine was still alive and coming back), a tobacco plant (no joke... and it has beautiful flowers!), a new Encore Azalea, and a few others.

After the Grower's Outlet I swung by a family nursery that was on the way home. I heard that they sold lime trees, so I stopped by to see. They do, and a whole bunch of other fun, random plants. I think Navel Orange trees are the most fragrant plants I have ever come across. I have decided that a lime tree, and an avocado tree will be my next big yard splurges... more about that later.

After leaving the nursery empty handed, I dropped by Lowes to look for a new electric weedwacker. My mother had found the highest rated one on Consumer Reports for me, and so I was on a mission to find it. No luck at Lowes... so I snagged some garden magazines, some ground cover plants to use around my bird house, and a new 100 ft extension cord. I loaded up the car, and headed to Total Power, a local lawn mower store. Total Power was a huge success. I walked in, asked the owner if they had a Stihl FSE 60 in stock, handed him my credit card and was on my way! He told me that the reason I couldn't find Stihl products at Lowes or Home Depot was because they were a family owned company, and they only liked to do business with other locally owned stores. He also offered to teach me how to rethread my weedwacker when I ran out of thread. Pretty awesome store.

By the time I got home it was 11:30. I had spent the whole morning out shopping! It was time to get to work. Before:

The birdhouse

The lower 40

The patio

The loot

And after 4 hours of weedwacking, mowing and blowing... the after:



It felt so good to work in the yard for a whole day! No baby fescue yet, but my seeds are coming along very well!