Glamorous Gladys

For the last two days, we have worked very hard to change our bland front facade into a view that is both colorful and beautiful.

A shadow from the palm tree adds the only interest to the
front facade of Gladys.

On Sunday, we removed the last of the weeds and grass that clogged the defined south and west gardens.  In some places we actually had to sift the dirt to get rid of the stones and the grass, but in the end we rid those gardens of rotting buried railroad ties, huge stones, and lots of unwanted vegetation. Rick even discovered and removed a baby black snake!

Monday allowed us a full day of shopping for plants.  We went to Eden Nursery three times, buying four Podocorpus to fill in the tall areas of the garden, five Ixoras to provide red blooms in the front garden, six Aztec Grass plants to provide white-and-green contrast in front of the Ixoras, one Firecracker plant to anchor the corner, and seven Crotons to add color to the south garden.  We also ordered four tons of red cedar bark rock to fill the gardens on top of the yet-to-be-laid landscape fabric.

Podocarpus rise on each end of the front garden.

Before we quit for the day, Rick planted the four Podocorpus bushes.  They were the most expensive, and we did not want someone to steal them from our front yard overnight.  I took the rest of the plants into the back yard for safe keeping.

We found an excellent fabric that seems to work very well in keeping the weeds out of our gardens.  While they are not 100% weed free, I am able to pull the few weeds that do appear occasionally. The rock will be delivered on Thursday or Friday of this week, so we have until tomorrow evening to get the fabric down.

The south garden contains two Podocarpus and seven
Crotons for interest and for color.

Today we were in the south garden early, while it was still in the shade from the neighbor's house, so we could plant the seven Crotons.  That took a bit of time, but we were able to complete that part of our work today just as the sun filled that portion of the garden.

Podocarpus, Ixora in the back, and Aztec Grass in the
front complete the front garden.

Then we moved on to the west (front) garden.  Since we had eleven plants in total to plant there, that took a bit of measuring and digging; however, in the end we now have two beautiful gardens.  Yes, they still need fabric and stones, but the on-our-knees part is mostly complete.

While we were still grubby and dirty, we made a trip to Home Depot to buy more landscape edgers.  We have decided to add edgers and red cedar bark stones around the two palm trees in the front yard also.  That will complete the entire landscape visible from the street.  We were past tired when we brought them home, so for now we know that we have the necessary materials to start our day tomorrow.

In contrast to the first picture of this blog segment, the house
now has soft and colorful plants to give Gladys curb appeal.

We are pleased with the results so far.  We have different heights, textures, and colors in the gardens to finally make Gladys a fairly glamorous old doll.  She may be old, but flowers show everyone in the neighborhood how much she is loved.  And as an added bonus, our neighbors are starting to clean up their yards, too!