garden update - is it spring yet?

We've only had a few days of cold weather, and I'm already looking forward to spring...is that bad?  (I do love snow, but cold without snow is just not something I enjoy.)

Maybe it's because I'm really excited about spring at my house, specifically in the yard.  Last year was my first spring in my great grandmother's house.  It was pretty without me having to do anything, but it was very overgrown.  I loved it, but as my mom put it, 'it's a good thing you don't have neighbors who can see your yard.'  Ouch.  Over the past year we've done a lot of cleaning up, and I think spring is going to be fantastic this year. 

Since it's been a while since I've given you an update on my yard and my garden, I decided I would bombard you with garden posts for the next few days.  I hope you don't mind.  This is more for me than for most of you, but I know I'm pretending that you secretly want to know too.

Project # 1 Mulch
The biggest project of late was mulch.  It may not sound like a lot, but I think we unloaded 4 truckloads of mulch.  At some point I stopped counting and just kept shoveling.  The path to the pond was overgrown, and the beds around the house looked like they have been neglected for the past 20-30 years.  The dirt is hard and dry, and not suitable for much of anything without some serious TLC.

Luckily, utility crews were trimming near my parents house, and a neighbor who worked on the crew asked if they wanted mulch.  They said yes, and got over 10 dump truck loads of raw tree mulch...we're talking piles and piles of free mulch.  Accepting this kind of mulch is risky, since it can be a mix of anything and everything, but this looked good enough to use around my house.

The good thing and the bad thing about raw mulch is that it as it decomposes it kills everything underneath it.  This made it perfect for the path to the pond, and near the rock foundation of my house (the ivy is gone, and I want it to stay that way).   It took almost 2 truckloads to do the path to the pond, and the rest has gone around the house.  I protected the existing plants with older mulch, and used the raw mulch to fill in between.  I also put down cardboard in the areas that were weed or ivy prone before I added mulch, just to be safe.

You can see the darker mulch with a thin layer of raw mulch on top.

The plan here is to let the mulch decompose and have mother nature do her thing before I try and really work here. This gives me some time to focus on other areas and feel good knowing that when I'm ready to dig in here, it will be a lot easier. It already looks so much better having the beds defined and the weeds gone!

So much nicer seeing where the beds will be.

I'll be using rocks to define this edge more

While we were working on the mulch, we also took care of some drainage issues.  I'm not sure why the downspout drains were running uphill, (since my house is on top of a hill), but they were, and that was easily corrected.  My house can get a little damp, and this should go a long way towards correcting that problem.

It's always good for the water to flow away from the house.

The mulch has made a world of a difference, without violating my rule of observing for a year before I started planting anything.  

I have been busy, so look for more posts the next few days while I get caught up!