We bought a house in October, and we continue to make improvements a little at a time.
I love our home and all the projects that we commit to. Today’s project started as a simple job of spreading 7 yards of mulch. 8 hours later, it is beautiful. (Before and after photos are at the end.)
The previous owners of our home did a great job of planting beautiful, shade loving flowers and foliage. My absolute favorite are the Hostas that seem to be the plant of choice in our neighborhood which is surrounded by luscious mature trees.
My son was hired to do some yard work for a neighbor lady last week, and her back yard was the most amazing shade garden I have ever seen. She had several varieties of Hostas, each with a different name, and each perfectly placed along the paths that made up a picturesque view that deserves a spot on HGTV.
Our plan today, as mentioned in the opening of this post, was just to spread the 7 yards of mulch we purchased from the newest mulch retailer in Noblesville; Musselman Landscaping Solutions, who is amazing, by the way. We ordered from them Saturday morning at around 10:00 a.m. and when we got home at 5:00 p.m., our mulch was waiting for us exactly where I requested it to be dumped, very neatly, and the price was great as well. (can you tell how many tangents my mind travels as I write?)
Anyhow, once we got started, I noticed that there were rocks that needed to be removed before we began spreading the mulch in its respective areas. This job nearly wiped me out for the count. George wasn’t overjoyed with the scope creep either.
We carried somewhere near 50–5 gallon buckets of decorative rock from the flower beds over the deck, down the stairs, and to their new area to compensate for mulch that washed away over the last few months with our excessively rainy spring resulting in a muddy mess. Crossfit and strongman athletes would be proud of the amount of farmer carries of buckets of rocks we transplanted.
With the rocks moved, the mulch dumping and spreading commenced. Easy peasy… Until I spotted an area between our driveway and our neighbor’s home, who had an exciting last couple weeks out of town performing in the Clown Band, in need of some major weeding. I pulled all the weeds; a 45 minute job leaving my fingers aching.
By this point, Indy was approaching 90 degrees and I felt like I was approaching heat stroke. I’m stubborn though, and just had to keep going. George was smart and took a couple hours off inside so he didn’t join me with the unnecessary heat exhaustion.
We finished the main job and the pop-up jobs in about 8 hours. Landscaping is not at all for the weak. I feel beat to hell. My thumbs and toes have blisters, I’m sunburnt, physically exhausted, and can’t wait for the delayed onset muscle soreness to come tomorrow and Tuesday. I didn’t die though and I now know that the magic number of yards of mulch I need is 8 and next time mulching starts in April, not in June. :)
