Labor Day labors

Here's a follow-up to our summer project out the back patio door.  Last week Jay bought four sheets of siding and put them on the house.  It looks so good.  You can barely tell they were replaced...except that those four pieces are slightly whiter :)

Right in the area by the tail is where the plants were.

Jay has cut the boards for our walkway, but they need stained and fastened down.  The Pinterest photo shows them loose, but we can't figure out how that will ever work around here.  Hank the Tank will discover their mobility and they'll be all over the yard.

We plan to sow some grass and try to get that dirt area full of thick, green grass.  I think it will look nice next Spring if it takes off.  We also have to take care of the far side of the walkway where we have some weeds growing out of control.  Jay will sow new grass there as well.

Hank is not part of the project.

On Monday, Labor Day, we worked most of the afternoon moving the plants that had been right up next to the old deck.  They need shade.  We have always thought it would like nice to have some sort of landscaping between these two small trees in the backyard by the barn.  They are very shady and the grass won't grow there anyway.  So Jay went and got a few scoops of dirt from the Quacker's and we dug and split and re-planted until we had everything where we wanted it.

A little short on materials...

Unfortunately, we were short one strip of landscape fabric and one half scoop of landscape rock to complete our new shady landscape, but we made a good dent in the project.  We transplanted one plant out front to replace an incorrigible combination of two plants that is now in the fence row.  By incorrigible, I mean that I have dug that plant up twice now trying to remove an over-crowding columbine and the columbine will not go away...so out they both went.  If you ever want something hardy, columbine is what you need!

Earlier this summer Jay watched a do-it-yourself program on TV about separating and transplanting perennials. He felt like a pro by the time we were done with this. It's really simple too, don't be afraid to just chop those roots in two.  We got the machete and Jay chopped away.  When I took these pictures Wednesday morning, the plants hadn't even had water since Monday, and they were still looking great.  I just hope it continues.

If I see the Precious out there using it as a potty, we may be in the market for Hank III...