Groundskeeper Ronnie

This is just one of the photos I took today, while Ron was kind enough to rake out a bunch of leaves and start getting The Slope cleaned up. Last fall I yanked much of the juniper (creating a pile in the driveway the size of Ron's car), but as you can see, some remains. It tends to take over, so I want to get the rest of it out. There are a few other random shrubs and ground covers, some of which we may keep. It's hard to tell what else might pop up as spring continues. Either way, this is a tricky area to landscape. A level surface with a retaining wall in front might be a nice idea in the future, but that's not happening this year. We won't be doing any siding or roofing until much later in the year (if we're lucky)... so in the meantime we want to make our landscape neat, clean, and low-maintenance (but hopefully pretty).

I appreciate Ron's hard work today - he took 2 truck loads of yard debris to my parents' house (where it can be safely burned in a giant pile... and they also have a good spot to dump leaves in the woods. We don't have those easy options). Anyway, he said it's nice to be outside, to relieve the cabin fever a bit. From the looks of it, our soil is fantastic. We won't be doing battle against a sandbox with ants, ground (miner) bees, and crabgrass like our last home! Also, when we moved here in the fall, the yard was excellent (with no work done to it - except mowing - for over two years)! With a little extra effort, we should be able to keep it quite nice.

Mysterious bulbs, etc. are popping up in various locations in front and back. Daffodils? Irises? Tulips? Some of these will definitely be kept (even if relocated).