Have you seen the movie”grey Gardens”? It’s about a cousin of Jackie Kennedy and her mother who live in a beautiful house in the hamptons and let it fall into serious disrepair on the inside and outside.
Lucky dog farm, in a way, has been similar to that. It has been neglected and unmaintained for quite some time. I spent all of october Outside, cutting, pruning, digging and planting. it was exhausting working in the heat and every day around five o’clock, i literally came crawling into the house, aching and sore. I would revive with a shower, make dinner and collapse into bed by 8:00.
by the next morning, i was rested and revived enough to start the same routine for the next 30 days. Cutting, raking, dragging huge branches onto the back of the truck to drop off at the town dump.
We lost a 40 year old Bougainvillea to hurricane milton and cut it up to get rid of it. The thorns were horrible. they go through the soles of shoes and scratch the skin til it bleeds. i am happy its gone and have replaced it with an italian well that we brought from our other house.
I trimmed all the existing bushes from about 5 feet high to two feet, planted sunpatiens and greenery we brought from the other house. the rest we covered with mulch.
Notice the ugly gate! It doesn’t work (surpise) and is Also in the process of being replaced.
Meanwhile, I now am the proud owner of a “she shed”.
The shed was already on the property and was basically used for more storage of garbage and home to rodents.
I own a lot of power tools for gardening and projects and having a space to store them made me very happy. So i didn’t mind that I suited up with goggles, mask, gloves and covered arms and legs to go in there and clean it out.
It took two full days to power wash it because it was so dirty.
but we have filled it and organized with our own “stuff” and it has really given us a LOT of extra room in the garage.
i’ve never been a fan of seeing these in people’s yards, but i will admit, i’m glad we now have one.
behind the shed is a big area that was very overgrown with weeds. I thought maybe it was a garden, but after pulling everything out, it turned out to be just a 2 foot deep gravel pit.
it came in handy for my next project…
There is a maple tree outside our side entrance that i wanted to cut down. The leaves fall all over and get stuck in the brush and flowers and i certainly am done with raking!
i happened on this tree bench on a garden website and fell in love with it.
The tree i wanted gone had this big interesting thing growing towards the bottom that made me want to keep it.
it turns out to be what is called a “staghorn Elkhorn” fern. the leaves look like antlers. it naturally grows what look like lily pads that stick to the tree and the leaves come out of them. They’re pretty expensive to buy so i decided to keep it.
I bought some paving blocks and put them around the base of the tree..
then i assembled the seat. it was pretty easy to do..
i bought myself the holy grail of wheelbarrows from ace hardware.
that thing is BIG and holds a LOT!
i used it to go back and forth to get the gravel; probably about ten trips.
the hardest part was to finish assembling the bench to go around the tree. but it worked and i love the way it came out.
if you look at The background, you can see the progress i’ve made on the stone path. what a job that was; sitting on a pillow on the ground lifting and cutting the weeds that hid the rock.
I finally finished it two days ago and it looks so nice and clean now. eventually I’ll plant along the edge.
I have finally made it into the backyard for the next phases. There is a lot of overgrowth and so one afternoon i started cutting away with no agenda.
what i thought was just a big mess turned out to be a bunch of banana trees. the bananas are so little! I’ll have to research to find out what kind they are.
Behind the bananas was another big mess of brush and when i got closer i realized an old bench was all covered in vines.
and in front of that was a big pile of brown coconuts and palm leaves.
hubby helped me bag all the brush so it could be put at the curb. look what we found underneath!!
A huge cement fire pit!!! I was so excited! The childhood pyro in me was reignited! We christened it that weekend with my high school best friend and her husband. We Roasted marshmallows on sticks just like when we were kids.
That Also Explains the bench…
so now it Is time to go Back to the inside with some more TLC. Our bedroom and bathroom were gutted last week for a total redo.
it was going well but in true typical florida work ethic style, no one showed up Today. I have heard a lot of Stories about bad business practices and i am hoping we don’t become a part of it..
i’m not sure if this was any kind of sign, but i found this on the garage floor while sweeping…
a gold st. christopher medal.
first of all i believe he lost his “saint” status, and second, he was the traveler’s protector, so if anything, at least he’s with us!
and so are my inlaws who keep coming to visit by a cardinal who comes to a tree off our lanai.
they would have loved it here.
i know we do
Castle & Cliff 