What To Do With Our Covid Time....the YARD!

 It has been 7 months since our lives changed and daily infection/death counts became our norm. We now have masks for all occasions and they are a fun and appreciated gift for any reason. We have chosen to be careful with our lifestyle in the world of Covid while many others, including family members, are not.  I train clients and want to protect them. The parental units are in their mid 80s and are certainly vulnerable - no matter what Fox and Rush Limbaugh say. So we are safe for all of them first.

With the added time, and no travel this year, I've done almost daily outdoor workouts (through the summer). We've worked on our 'to do' list of fixes and updates in the house - though that list regenerates.  And I finally had time to figure out how to change the front yard landscape.  My goal was to reduce the amount of grass and maintenance, and even water consumption.

 

Sort of 'before' with some grass already removed

First I hired a landscape designer who created a plan around my requirements - must be able to put the Turk's fruit trees in the yard without looking weird, use as many edible plants as we can, have some color and a path from the front walk to the side gate since we'd worn that path already.

A design was drawn and of course I modified it as I discovered the Turk had more fruit trees than I thought, and as I realized the cost of plants.  The Turk got to work digging out the old shrubs and odd plants we'd stuck in the ground over the past 12 years.  Then he started digging up grass, which included mostly weeds in the area we were changing.  We hired a handyman to revise our sprinkler system so the new plantings could drink. The Turk jumped in to help in this process though I'm not sure it was requested.

 

 

 

 

 

Turk busy digging up plants and spreading dirt 

 

 

Some plants in, others milling around looking for a spot

Things are lining up

Then we addressed the sandy soil.  Lowe's had a big sale on planting soil and the Turk was on it.  There was a dirt shuffle between his vegetable garden and the front yard, and in the end every place got good dirt.

Then came the search for plants.  Because it was the end of the summer, and everyone else had spent their summer sequestered at their home doing projects, the available plants were few and small, or old and ragged.  No matter to me! Give me your tired, your leggy plants for reduced prices!  And that is how it went. 

The all-important planting of the fig tree! a gift from a client

 

Two weeks of laying a stone path, subdividing overgrown tired leftover plants, discovering amaryllis bulbs everywhere I dug, digging holes to plant and then changing locations, and spreading five cubic yards of pine bark mulch (2 1/2 pickup trucks full) was a full body workout.  We now have a fig tree, avocado tree and two papaya trees in our front yard, alongside pineapples, rosemary and maybe some renegade tomatoes who's seeds came with the dirt transfer. 

After - plants just starting their new lives

 

first month of growth - things grow FAST in Florida

I wondered how long it would take these mini plants to get to the size that the landscaper had recommended we purchase.  In just two weeks, most of these plants have grown significantly - probably happy to be out of their old pots.  It will be an adventure to see the changes over the next year or two and I'm sure I will have to move a few things around.  But in the meantime, I appreciate the fun and hard work we put into our outdoor Covid project!

 

 

 

One month of growth

Coreopsis full of bees!

Porch pots are blooming!