One of our main goals this year was to get the Utah house ready for the market. This has been no small task. I bought the house new two years ago and spent the first year finishing the basement and neglected the landscaping. The basement was finished by the end of the last summer and I started a little bit of work in the yard. In preparation for a sprinkler system I had Sam remove 4 inches of dirt.
In spring I tried to convince Michael that we could trench by hand and save a few bucks putting in our sprinkler system. Unfortunately we were plagued with Utah potatoes! Anyone familiar with the area understands what I mean by that. The ground is full of rock and the more you dig the more rocks you find and the bigger they get. After a couple hours of fruitless effort Michael convinced me to splurge and pay for a trencher. This made the process a lot less painful!
Michael, being the genius that he is, put in our sprinkler system without any prior experience or know how. Then it was time for top soil and sod! We had two truckloads of top soil delivered and spent the better part of the weekend getting ready for our new lawn. We put sod down in the heat of summer however Michael treated the soil with starter fertilizer and our lawn has been the greenest on the block, which is very important when you live in an upscale stuffy neighborhood!!
We put in annual and perennial beds as well as an herb and vegetable garden and a rose garden. The annuals took off and look gorgeous. I put in Purple and Red Salvia, Alyssum, Zinnias, and Petunias.
Our perennial beds don’t look quite as glamorous. They say the first year you put in perennials they sleep, the second year they creep, the third year they leap. So, we won’t be here to see them in their full glory however they will look a lot better next spring. We planted Shasta Daisies, blue Delphinium, Lavender, Columbines, Black-eyed susans, Echinacea, and pink Meadow Sage.
Michael has a great eye and suggested we save the rock from our yard to landscape rose beds and other bushes. It turned out perfect! I wish I had taken pictures of our roses earlier this year so that you can see the gorgeous colors against the stone.
We also put in square foot gardens this year, and even though we didn’t plant them until the second week of July they have flourished. We have been enjoying tomatoes, squash, beats, and peppers. I also planted pumpkins that seem to be doing really well. I also put in an herb garden which has been fabulous for cooking!
This weekend my darling husband will be putting up plantation style shutters to give the house a little extra curb appeal. The house seems naked without them and this is a fairly inexpensive way to dress up the house – it makes a huge difference.
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