Well, progress on the front yard waterwise renovation has begun here at the Vintage homestead (Latest update on the front yard renovation). However, due to the weather, and the fact the giant glacier in my front yard is taking forever to melt, progress is moving ssllloooowly. Ordinarily, I don’t get too antsy about the lack of progress on a garden project. It gets done when it gets done. The yard isn’t going anywhere.
But this particular project has a deadline that I have to meet in order to qualify for the rebate. The first inspection must be completed NLT than July 1st, and the final inspection must be completed by July 15th. I don’t like gardening under pressure!
The other deadline is self-imposed. I want to smother parts of the lawn using cardboard and cedar mulch. This will kill off the grass yet leave behind lots of organic material for the new plants that will go in where the lawn used to be. My plan is to get the carboard/mulch down before the end of March, before the grass starts greening up and growing vigorously. But I need the snow to melt before I can start the process.
With all that being said, I am happy to report that there has been some progress made. I cut down the dwarf blue spruce that outgrew the area it was planted in. When it comes to plants, dwarf is a relative term. Colorado Blue Spruces can get over 100 feet tall. This blue spruce is a globular shape and was supposed to get to 6 feet around after 10 years. Thus, making it a “dwarf” conifer.
However, after the 10-year mark it just kept on growing and became the “spruce that ate the mailbox”. So, it sadly had to come out.
Most of the snow has finally melted in the front yard. So, I was able to start marking out where the new features are going to be.
The orange marks the boundary of where the cobblestone will go. The are where the spruce stump is will become rock. The yellow marks indicate where a crushed granite pathway will lead to the mailbox.
The large area in the middle will be covered with cardboard and cedar mulch.
This is as far as I could go, however. In spite of the recent warm weather we’ve had here, the ground is still frozen solid. So, no digging yet. But I am hoping that in the next week or two I will be able to get the cardboard down and mulch down.
Wish me luck!
