Welcome to Debbie-Dabble Blog!!
I am so happy you decided to stop by!!
Today, I will be sharing MORE landscaping projects that we have been doing for our neighbors!!!!
The "Might as Well's " have taking over our neighborhood.....
In my previous ost, I shared my "Under the Sea" Tree, the "Beach" underneath it and a Lighthouse I made from clay pots......
Click
HERE if you missed that post......
I know I promised to share more of my "Under the Sea" decorations today but I simply did not have enough time to take pictures for that post as I have been so busy!!
And now for a few Personal Notes...
On Sunday, we celebrated our Grand Pup Faye's One Year old Birthday!!!
When we went to take her out that morning since Jim and Danielle were working as they work every weekend, we noticed that she already received some Birthday gifts from her Mom and Dad!!
Don't you just love this slice of Birthday cake with one candle on it????
And cupcakes!!
Of course, she had to show us her new toys.....
We had our traditional family Birthday party for little Faye on Sunday afternoon and I even set the table for her Birthday Bash.....
A bag of treats and toys from her Mimi and G Pop.....
And an Ice Cream Birthday cake....
We ordered pizza and boneless chicken bites from one of our favorite places, Aldo's.....
Sorry, I forgot to take pictures of the food but it is always good....
Faye's Uncle Joey gifted her a gift card from Chewie and was kind enough to pay for the food from Aldo's , treating everyone....
Faye knew that bag of presents was for her.....
G Pop was more than happy to help her out....
Waiting patiently for G Pop to detach the cardboard from her new ball...
.
"Is there any more in there for me"????
Faye is strictly on a dog food diet as Yorkies are known to have
sensitive stomachs so she did not get to eat what we ate for her party.......
But she got her fair share of treats from G Pop ....
I always share Sunsets from our Front Porch but the other day, I was able to get pictures of a Sunrsie!!
Yes, I can see both from our front porch!!
How Blessed am I??????
These pictures were taken from 6 am to 7 am as the Sun came up over the woods on the one side of our Townhouse development
So..........
Since we did our next door neighbor's slope and flower bed under her LR window.....
The "Might as Well's" have hit the neighborhood!!!!
Our Neighbor Tom thought he "Might as Well" have us landscape the top of his slope after he cut back and trimmed the trees, shrubs and plants that are planted there....
He still wants to cut back some things on his slope and then we will add some mulch to the slope but his slope has mostly ground cover on it like ours....
This is Tom's flower bed at the top of his slope BEFORE .....
The slope at the top of the steps.....
The arborvitae on the other side of the top of our steps......
Tom did not want to cut this down further.....
On Saturday, we started working on this flower bed.....
Now.......
This is how it looks now after a layer of weed block fabric was put down, more plants trimmed and 6 bags of black mulch laid down......
Top of the steps NOW....
Tom did not want to trim his rhododendrons into 2 separate plants.....
He wants them to grow together as he likes a bit of privacy when he sits outside on his chair in the front........
Did I mention that Tom is the neighbor who was feeding the squirrels?????
All is forgiven as we have been neighbors for close to 30 years.....
As fate would have it, after we finished Tom's flower bed, Ed, who now rents my neighbor Elly's house from the new owner, thought that he "Might as Well" have his yard done too!!
Now how could we say yes to one neighbor and no to another neighbor especially when their yards are right next to each other......
So we made a deal with Ed to landscape both flower beds in front of his house at the top of the slope....
Tom helped Joe trim the Burning Bush in Ed's yard, using his electric shears.....
Unfortunately, it had already lost most of it's leaves so there would probably not be any leaves left on it to turn that beautiful shade of red.....
Don't know if it was because of the excessive heat or rain that we have been getting this Summer so we decided to cut it back and hopefully, it will revive next year..........
They also trimmed the Rose of Sharon Trees by Ed's set of steps.....
This is how the flower bed at the top of the slope looked with the weed block fabric I put down....
My neighbor Elly had made a rock garden on top, going into the woods, bringing back tons of rocks.....
I had pulled out all the large ones and raked and graded the remainder, leveling everything out.....
This is how it looks NOW.......
I put back all the bigger rocks.....
Ed wanted this Squirrel put back and facing out to the parking lot to Welcome People!!
Our son Joey thinks that round rock looks like a dinosaur egg!!
We hope that cutting the Burning Bush back, it will come alive next year.....
This is what both yards now look like......
From the other side.....
And from our front porch looking down toward the woods......
The cone on the sidewalk down there is from plumbing work that required jack hammering through the side walk to get to the pipes that run under our townhouses......
This is how it looks from down in the parking lot....
Elly had covered her slope with ground cover and perennials....
Sadly, the new owner of her home cut everything down with a weed whacker and sprayed week killer on the slope!!!!
I know Elly is rolling in her grave!!!
We hope that the perennials will survive and come back next year....
We took a break on Sunday as we celebrated little Faye's Birthday but we were back at it on Monday morning.....
Ed suffers from hip and knee issues and needs joint replacement surgery so is physically unable to do this type of work....
This is his flower bed under his Living Rom window which is much bigger than ours...
This style of townhouse is smaller than ours by 3 feet in length and as an Eat In Kitchen where ours has a Dining Room with a smaller Kitchen
Notice the pipe in the corner and the hose holder....
Long time ago, 3 neighbors ran pipes for an outside spigot but since they were outside, they froze and busted...
The pipe was cut and the bottom part was attached there not connected to anything....
So we removed it along with the hose holder....
Ed wanted these old yews cut right down to the ground as he was always tracking the needles from this ,that kept falling all over the sidewalk, into the house....
Joe cut back the azalea by the side walk which had been getting crowded out by a perennial of some kind that was past it's prime.....
After he easiltymanaged to cut down the yew on one side of the front door, he attacked the yew on the other side.....
Yes.....
He is using an axe!!!!
I expected to find a few fingers on the ground.....
But he managed to cut it down and keep his fingers....
I cut back the azalea on the other side as Ed wants them to eventually grow and trim them so they are both the same size.....
I graded the rock and mulch, leveling out the whole flower bed and I lifted all of the scalloped brick border out and up, as it had sunk down into the ground, and then put them back in......
You can see how much better the corner looks with out that pipe hanging and the hose holder!!
I put the weed block fabric down and Joe and Joey went for the mulch......
Even our self proclaimed computer nerd, Joey, helped bring the mulch up the steps......
See Joe laughing??????
So this is how it looks NOW.......
I have already been told by other neighbors that it does not even look like the same townhouse!!!
We left that little section of bricks so Ed can put a bucket of ice melt and a shovel or broom on.....
We moved some of the large rocks from the other flower bed into this one.....
This is what Ed's yard looks like NOW.....
Ed is very happy with how it all looks especially since 2 of his children are coming in for a visit and will be here today on Wednesday!!!
Our son, Joey, is walking down to inspect and Joe is in the parking lot.....
On Tuesday, we did the flower bed between Tom and Ed's front doors.....
Before
The divider in the middle was because the larger area was once all grass and the smaller area against the house was the only flower bed.....
I took out the divider, replaced the crumbling scalloped bricks in the front with the good ones from the center...
Graded and leveled all the rock....
Put down the weed block fabric and the mulch.....
What a difference.......
Little Maria, my neighbor Sara's 6 year old daughter kept rearranging the rocks.....
Joe and Tom started to dig out a decaying huge daisy plant and an arborvitae.....
Little Maria came to also help!!
She is definitely going to be a gardener as she helped me spread the mulch too!!!
After the guys and Maria removed the daisy bush and the arborvitae, this is what Tom's flower bed looks like....
Joe and Tom had already got the mulch....
Bright and early this morning ( Wednesday) Tom had removed the crumbling scalloped border and replaced it with ones he had on hand....
We laid down the weed block fabric and put down 8 bags of mulch.....
It turned out a neighbor had pavers that he was getting rid of and offered them up for free!!!
So we took 9 of the large ones and created a sitting area for Tom as he enjoys sitting outside on the chair that I gave him several years ago....
Now in looking at these pictures, I realized that we are going to have to cut down the trees in my next door neighbor's flower bed.....
But we have to wait again because we had removed 2 bird nests from the tree and here in just a few days, a robin went and built another one in the same tree!!!!
So when it gets a bit cooler and the robin's babies leave the nest, Joe is going to chop those down.....
Now all the way down, the 4 houses are landscaped with the same mulch and it looks refreshed and clean.....
Joe also filled in some of the bare spots on Tom's slope which is mostly covered with ground cover.....
We are going to wait until next year to see what comes up on Ed's slope.....
As I mentioned earlier the new owner of the house that our neighbor Ed rents off of, sprayed weed killer all over the slope which was covered with perennial ground cover...
So we will see what happens with this next year.....
Barna Landscaping is now RETIRED and TIRED!!!!!
But it was nice getting out, being with our neighbors, working together and having a laugh or two, making a new little friend in Maria who wants to know if I can do some craft with her!!!
LOL!!!
And it made all our homes look nicer!!!
Speaking of those "Might as Well's".....
Maria's mother Sara agreed to landscape her next door neighbor Jonathon's slope and front flower bed as he has no interest whatsover in doing it or taking care of it....
I am always amazed at why people like that even bother to buy a home if they do not want to have to take care of it....
My sons say that this is the reason why they rent where everything is done for them!!
Jonathon's yard had several overgrown Rose of Sharon Trees on the slope.....
Sara worked really hard at cutting them all down.....
And hauling all the branches off to the dumpster in her wheel barrow!!
Now you see straight up to the woods.......
And from the front.....
The neighbor on the other side of Jonathon is going to have an arborist cut down this massive tree.....
Jonathon is paying Sara to do this for him and she just had a truck load of mulch delivered today so I will keep you posted on this project!!!
This is Sara's house, which she is putting an addition on as she lives in the end unit by the woods...... .....
She landscaped her slope with the help of her daughter Maria!!
I will let you know how the "Might as Well's" are progressing!!!!
I hope you will stop by to visit again soon!!
Stay safe, healthy and most of all, HAPPY!!
Thanks to those who took the time out of their busy day to spend a little bit of time with me!!
If you do not have a blog, PLEASE
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reach you, I will reply on the post where you commented so pase check
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I am linking up to these parties:
That is all crazy good! You guys are like the neighborhood landscaping team. It all looks amazing!! I bet you're making the entire block smile!! Happy Birthday pup too!!
ReplyDeleteGosh, what a great job on each and every yard! They all look so gorgeous! I bet you are so proud every time you pull in the parking lot or walk out your front door. Such a big improvement for everyone and I bet it created a lot of nice fellowship with all the neighbors. Now it's time to rest and enjoy the fruits of your labors.
ReplyDeleteThe birthday party was just adorable! I bet you all had so much fun!!!!
Wow, the yards all turned out so lovely, clean and healthy! I wish I had your energy! Your photography is beautiful, the skies, the pup, the people, the landscaping, it is a pleasure to see. Thank you for sharing with us this huge project, you are an inspiration. xo, V
ReplyDeleteV.,
DeleteThanks once again for taking the time to visit!! And I do truly appreciate your kind words!! Glad you enjoyed seeing how our HUGE landscaping project progressed and turned out but Barna Landscaping is now retired!!! LOL!!
Have a great day!!
Hugs,m
Deb
Wow, everything looks so good, thanks to you and Joe. A lot of work for sure but how nice to see everything looking refreshed. Lots of happy neighbors too. Sara's yard is nice, too bad her neighbor doesn't have any interest in landscaping it himself, but at least she's willing to.
ReplyDeleteUnknown,
DeleteThanks so much for your kind words...As I have said, it is amazing what a little mucl and some elbow grease will do for you!! LOL!! The problem here is all the original owners took wonderful care of their yards but as they aged, it became too much physically and financially for some to continue to do so. Then the houses were sold and the new owners seem to either not want to be bothered or have rented them out to people who should not be in a house if they have no intention of taking care of the property.I give my neighbor Ed credit as he rents and he put up his own money for the mulch and a bit for our hard work to make his house look nice.Tom was so reluctant to cut anything down or change anything but his would have stuck out like a sore thumb if he didn't and now he keeps thanking me for edging him on to do this....Hopefully, it will continue to inspire neighbors to maintain their properties BUT we will not be the ones doing it for them!! Barna Landscaping is retired!!!!! LOL!!
Hugs,
Deb
I can't get over the difference in the landscaping! That is amazing. Even trimmming away all the dead stuff and laying down fresh mulch was a biggie. It's been fun to follow along on everything. Loved all the festivities and gifts from Faye's birthday. It's such a sweet way to celebrate! Hope your week is filled with all good things, CoCo
ReplyDeleteHow neat that you were able to do this it looks fantastic! So neat that it was a neighbor wide event and you were able to enjoy each other's company while you were at it.
ReplyDeleteSo wonderful that you can see sunsets and sunrises!
Oh wow!! Looks like you guys have been really busy with so many landscaping projects! You all have done an amazing job. Belated birthday wishes to Faye. Sounds like she had a lovely time with her new treats. They all look so cute :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for linking up at our #HomeMattersParty
It was very neighborly for you to have done all this landscaping, a concept not very much in vogue it sometimes seems. Each individual lot looks great and having a cohesive design for all of the neighbors really has an impact! I think Maria has the makings of a great gardener, thanks to you and your husband. Well done! And your lighthouse is cute:)
ReplyDeleteDebbie, y'all are GOOD neighbors, lol! Everything looks great! Thanks for sharing at Vintage Charm!
ReplyDeleteWow! I bet your neighbors are so thankful for all the hard work you guys are doing. The neighborhood looks great!
ReplyDeleteI'm exhausted just reading about all the work you've done! Great job to all of you and Happy Birthday to Faye! Thank you for sharing at Party In Your PJ's.
ReplyDelete