new plantings&more weeds.

As my annoyance and frustration with our weed problem has increased, the new plants we seem to be given every week or so has counteracted the negative feelings. It's been so great! I figured it wasn't a good use of time or finances to invest in lots of plants and flowers to plant this summer, since we have plenty of areas that need to be demolished spruced up. I didn't want to let myself buy a whole bunch of pretty things, and just ignore the stuff that needed to be removed. So, I work away (slowly) on weeding and bagging the awful bishop's root (the name of the weed that shall not be named) and then every so often we're given a great new thing to plant. This week was Thai basil and an artichoke plant from Ronnie, which we added to Jesse's beginning stages of an herb garden. Next to that was where we decided to put the tomato plants. They're still in pots in case we want to move them. My dad brought them over and helped me set them up.

He also brought more lilacs! He'd planted some for us behind our mailbox, so it will make a little hedge around it. These we decided to put near the road, to block off one of the yards from the driveway and road. When our new leachfield was put in, they cleared a bit of greenery so it looks sort of....sparse.  At least they planted new grass.

My dad also brought a little birdhouse he made, so we hung it in the tree that is right near the kitchen window and our sunroom bay window. He said only wrens could fit in it, and sure enough we now have a wren neighbor craming nest materials into the house every morning!

Bishop's root behind the stone wall, which I may not get to this year...At least it's out of sight most of the time.

On the side of the stone wall, I've cleared some of this.

The beginning stages of weeding the front of the stone wall. Seeing it come BACK after a good rain shower (which have been daily) is just like a little stab in my not-green-thumb.

I've been working away at this little slope, and have almost gotten to the bottom. It's been about 6 big trash bags worth of weed, and lots of snails and slugs.

We also want to dig up these ferns that have taken over the front of our house...I regretfully urged Jesse to keep them when we saw the bulbs starting in April ("We don't know what they'll be! It might be pretty flowers!) and now we know they are huge jungle fern. It almost seems silly to dig each of them out this summer, so we'll make sure to tackle them early next spring when they're just little bulbs poking out of the ground. I thought this was too much, but they are now taller than me: