I’m Ready

Posted on April 24, 2010 by theOkieCollegeGirl

I’m addicted to yard work. I love when summer rolls around and things green up. I spent 6 hours cleaning up the yard a few days ago and have one of the worst burns I’ve ever had while I’ve lived here in Norman. Who knew on an overcast day that’d I get the sunburn of the year. I even managed to scrub down the back patio and I must say it’s the best I’ve ever seen it look. I love Spring/Summer and giving everything a good scrub down. My yard is slowly transitioning into something in which I can start entertaining guests and lighting fires at night in my amazing fire pit. I’m going to focus on cooking out more on it this year and not just hot dogs and smores.

Rearranging the patio wasn’t as difficult as I thought it was going to be. All of the pots are heavy, but easy to scoot around on the concrete. Which is what I did to move everything how I wanted it. I’m thrilled at the way it turned out, I have more room to step out onto the patio from the back door and there is more room too. I just have to figure out more seating out in the yard that won’t wreck the Bermuda I’m trying to grow. Like I said, I’m a yard work addict. I completely love summer for this reason, shopping at Lowes and Home Depot become major staples in my shopping adventures when I take a trip out and about.

This is just the beginning of what everything looks like. Slowly more and more things will pop out of the ground and really make my yard pop. I’m looking forward to that more than anything. I love having color in all the corners of my yard. A plot full of canas to cover up that hideous telephone box is what will eventually come up. The same goes for the other corner. I will take photos as the growing progresses, I’m stoked to have everything in the ground and will try to be patient while things take their time to grow around here.

The view from where I’m sitting. I love my love seat and enjoy sitting out and either watching Ellie point birds at the bird feeders, running the fence line with Jake the Blue Heeler or cuddling next to me. It’s nice to sit back and relax and take all of this in. I’ve worked hard the past 3 years and it’s finally starting to show. I’ve seeded multiple times, fertilized and even put out insect granules to kill the grub worms. Oh yes, I’m a hard core work-a-holic.

Yard Wars Have Begun

Posted on April 5, 2009 by theOkieCollegeGirl

It has been decided that my yard (both FRONT & BACK) is going to do some major ass butt kicking this year.

I did much more yard work than I wanted to. My body is aching from 2 days of lifting 40lb bags of top soil and 3 HUGE bags of potting soil. I need at least 1 more bag of potting soil to finish my newly drilled pots.

I found FIRE ANTS in one of the pots I had that didn’t have holes poked in it. They’re all dead now, but I did acquire a few new red spots/stings while the killing was going on.

I have put 22 bags of top soil in the back yard to date. I still need more to cover & fill “Ellie” holes, but I won’t do that until May – when I can add seed to the soil & make grass GROW!

My banana tree will be here the 2nd weekend in May (after finals). I’m far too excited about my exotic back yard. It’s my stress reliever and it’s going to rock when I finish my plans for it.

A current update on the things Papaw gave me. The Lillie’s look amazing as a boarder in my flower bed. The Hibiscus plants are starting to bud & grow. Cannas are popping up in a few places. Shasta Daisies & Black Eyed Susans are doing marvelously.

I decided I’d have fun this summer and try seeds. I bought so many seeds and I’m quite hopeful that I’ll get some seeds for next year from these plantings. I’m currently waiting on the LAST Frost to put my seeds in the ground, but all pots have been fertilized.

There will be a variety of plants this year.

Which include:

Herbs:

Basil
Cilantro
Parsley
Fennel
Oregano
Rosemary
Chives

Flowers:

Black Eyed Susan Vine
Zinnia
Nasturtium
Egyptian Pea Vine

I have plans for both the Vines. They’re going in the flowerbed with a “fence” thing to climb. Just have to wait on the darn thing to go in SALE at Hobby Lobby.

Neighbor Boy is seriously going down this year. He is to do all his own yard work – already told him that.

Scaping. Not My Idea.

Posted on March 23, 2009 by theOkieCollegeGirl

I hate a great date with Neighbor Boy the other night. We watched Shrek III & then some of 2 different March Madness Basketball games. I had a lot of fun.

We caught up on everything I’ve been doing with school, the Mini 9 that is in Production at Dell, and of course – the Yard War of Summer 2009. I enjoy giving Neighbor Boy a hard time about his yard and whatever else I can think of. He secretly enjoys it.

Just like how he said his yard was oh so green from scalping it; to which I made the comment it was from all the spray paint from January. He did get a laugh out of that. I was in complete shock when he showed me just how much grass he cut; around 12+ bags for the Norman yard crew to come pick up. I scalped mine yesterday and it was around 1 1/2 bags. Quite the difference, I do believe mine was on account of the wind. All the grass that was left behind in my yard mysteriously blew away. Fine with me.

(We were supposed to do something Saturday; but as my luck would have it – it’s March Madness & he’s more concerned about OSU & OU basketball.)

Flowerbed Frenzy

Posted on October 12, 2008 by theOkieCollegeGirl

It’s hard to believe that little snake scared me to death. I realize it’s a tiny, but a snake is a snake. Did I ever think I’d see one in town? Uhhh, NO! Given I was raised in the country, I’m still not used to seeing snakes. Which is why I thought I loved living in town. Now, I just have to realize that we have snakes, coyotes & deer in our neighborhood. I’m wondering if I move further into the city if I’ll still have these creatures.

Here is a shot before the flower job transitioned to where it is now. Given this was after I went hog wild and tore through the sweet potato vines….and after mom told me it was okay to dig up the cedar trees too. You can still see fragments of all the sweet potato vine mess. I told ya, I went bazerk trying to find those snakes.

I did work hard yesterday and today. I have pictures to prove just how hard I did work. Who knew I’d love yard work so much? I began at 8AM and didn’t finish til around 9:30PM. Given, I did eat dinner and have to go to Lowes twice and Wal-Mart for supplies. I believe this weekend turned into a very productive one! I think we’re going to add a wroght iron something from Hobby Lobby. They’re on sale this week, so thats my excuse! The front does look somewhat bare compared to what it did look like, but things will grow – they always do! We’ve got Barberry, Dwarf Pampass, Mums, Holly, tall Monkey Grass, AND a Purple Leaf Sand Cherry Tree! I think it’s finally starting to look homey.

The Next Indiana Jones

Posted on October 11, 2008 by theOkieCollegeGirl

Today of all days, I decided our grass needed to be mowed. That’s how this WHOLE ordeal started with mowing grass.

Roomie decided she needed to make a Wal-Mart run. I think that’s our second home. While she’s gone I decided that the sweet potato vines needed to be tucked further into the flower bed so I could mow really well around the flower bed area. I’m lifting and tucking the mess of vines into the bed. The next thing I know I lift up a patch of vines and there are 3 snakes WRAPPED around the vines. My heart starts pounding and the first thing I do is grab the shovel (after I open the garage). I look for the snakes and spot one, so I try to kill it and it gets away, I’m panicking now. I start whacking the vines with the shovel ripping through everything to try and see the snakes to KILL them.

As I’m pounding the ground with the shovel and the vines are flying everywhere I’ve got one hand ripping them out and watching very carefully for the snakes. I rip all the vines out and don’t see the snakes, this is where I start freaking out. So, I scour the flower bed looking for them. I only see one, but that’s good enough for me. I take a stab at him and he darts off into the thick (now hated) grass. I stab him a few more times so I know he’s really dead, then picked him up and placed him on the sidewalk.

I called Roomie and informed her of the news and I think she was more mad over the vines being gone than the actual snake being alive. After she got home and saw the snake, her whole perspective changed….

Now we have a dead snake still on the sidewalk and a flower bed that needs replenishing.

In Regards to the Flower Bed – R.I.P.

Posted on October 11, 2008 by theOkieCollegeGirl

After you read the post from earlier about the snakes, read this one.

I ripped out all the vines and caladiums in the flower bed. My comment is that the caladiums were already dying anyway and the sweet potato vines were going to die in a few weeks. Mom said that I could tear out the cedars since they were nearly taller than our window in the front of the house. So, I took what she said and did it. I ripped out the 3 cedars (which were taller than I am) all by myself. Actually I did most of the tearing apart the flower bed by myself.

I decided I’d let Roomie help pick out what to put in next, so we took off to Lowes. We had coupons for better discounts. We now have 3 Barberry shrubs where the cedars were and yellow and red/maroon mums where the Purple Sand Cherry Tree is. I still have to pick up 3 more mums (the ones we got were tiny and cheap) and some mulch. Other than that the flower bed is near completion.

…Now if we could just convince mom & dad to tear out the tree in the front yard. It’s near death anyway.

I’ll post pictures of the snake and the flower bed later this evening.