Before and After Yard Clean-up

Yikes! What a challenge. Eighteen months of neglect (not complete neglect - but almost) took its toll on the backyard. As a result of an experimental planting of birdseed - never saw any birds hanging out there btw - I had a host of wild, crappy looking plants in the 'bog' area plus a bunch of fast growing wild willows which are the weed kind, not the nice tree kind. I am frankly surprised I had the strength and did not throw my back out.

Prepare to be bored!!

Before: bog area with weeds and wind in the willows

After: weeds gone, some mulch down in the form of grass clippings -
at least I have something to work with now.
The boards along the fence are so the dogs next door and
Layla cannot see each other - it keeps them calmer. If anyone remembers, I once took pictures of the house on Goldenrod when we first moved in to share with my family back east and Tommy jumped into the shot of every picture. Layla was reminding me of that when I took these pics.

The Grove

Before: Believe it or not the pictures above include citrus trees.
One orange and one lime. They were completely covered and surrounded by weeds.

After: The one in the foreground is the lime. The poor orange tree is basically a stick. I fed it and pampered it and it has this season to show me whether it will thrive or not. I added some bark as mulch and will be getting more of that each month. No dump in Winchester to pick up free mulch.

Before: Utility Area

After: This is the cleanest utility area I have ever personally experienced. It brings me joy.

Before: The shed area was last used as a vegetable garden. You can see some swiss chard that has simply kept going. There are a bunch of strawberries in there too, but not enough to be worth saving. And can't forget the ubiquitous willows. I was pretty surprised I got out as much as I did, but I did have to call on Grecia for the last of the stump. What's the point of having a big, strong Russian in the house if he can't dig out a stump once in awhile?

Btw, did you know bees love willows?

After: A start. One partially filled raised bed with a blueberry in it (already dug out once by Layla) and the beginnings of a bed for a raspberry bush with more to follow.
My little piece of Dogtown and the bluff.

Before: The grass was completely starved and forgotten.
Only automatic watering kept it from death.

A little food and 5 days of mowing (front and back) brought it back to civilization.

And a second raised bed - the herb bed - added to the farm. All pretty plucky for a gal who is still not sure she will be here by summer's end, but all activity is therapy at this point.
Added bonus: No disagreements about plopping down a raised bed on a lawn. My view - it's just grass, easy fix.