Knockout Roses showing the start of their second wave of blooms this Spring/Summer--

Moving to the backyard, a photo of the Gardenia in the raised deck bed. The initial wave of blooms have not been headed, so you may see some browning blooms--

A while back I posted information about some shrubs I had received from another member of this forum. Among them was an Oakleaf Hydrangea that he had rescued from neighbors who had abruptly sold their home and moved away in the wake of the death of their son in the Middle East. He offered it to me. I had little hope for it, but took it, promising to do with it what I could, I'm pleased to share the photo below---

This posting has been deleted.

This post was edited by ApprenticeGardener on Mon, Jul 29, 13 at 13:42

How is the ivy removal going? I got mine out using a grape hoe, I don't know why people don't using this tool more often.

Ivy removal thus far has been somewhat successful. Cutting it back and then spraying the new growth with RU seems to do the trick after a second application. Our main problem has been the "person-power" needed to cut back substantial portions at one time and do the RU application.

Our landscaper is scheduled to come through in the next week or two with a small crew and give it another go before colder weather sets in.

Best Wishes

Hello again all. Sorry to have had to "drop out" for so long a time. The reasons are neither important nor interesting. Suffice it to say that I am back at it again and ready to continue on the project I first posted slightly over a year ago.

It's very overcast right now, but the next several days promise little if any moisture and a fair amount of sunshine. Will post some "status" pictures as of the present this weekend. Not much has changed, but we have made some progress.

Good to be back on and with the forum.

Best Wishes--Carl

The small nursery... Two forsythia, two white dogwood and a maple ready to transplant. Unfortunately, another dogwood in this group was mistaken for a weed by my gardening partner, and a group of fingerling dogwoods bedded in October of last year did not over-winter. The surviving plants are from the Arborday Foundation.

Beginning of a new planting area on the bank shared with our neighbor. Lilies, annual vinca and some hostas. We'll test these and some other subsequent plants to see what does best.

Many of my previous posts dealt with the overwhelming amount of English ivy in the back yard. Cutting and trimming it back and then using a generic RU kept it at bay, but our regular landscape man never was able to get a crew over to really cut it back to a "manageable" amount.

So we are about in the same shape we were this time last year.

Here's a pic of the area directly behind the raised planter on the "low deck". We decided to clear out this area to make it look a little neater.

Welcome back and I hope the ivy eradication effort goes well this year.

...and an after picture. Almost finished but it rained with just a bit of the far right upper corner to finish. Surprise!!!--the variegated privet that we cut back severely are still there. The ivy was taken out the "old fashioned" way--a downward-tined fork to loosen it up and then human power to pull it out.

The plan here is to put down pine straw, "nuke" new ivy growth as it arises, and plant liriope (which we also have an abundance of) as a border.

One of the several small multi-color lantanas we set out last weekend.

This year's version of the concrete planter.

This year's outdoor furniture project (pardon my finger). They have only surface rust, are not bent or missing any pieces, and all the welds are sound. It needs a larger top, but that can wait until after the paint is stripped & we repaint them in multiple pastel colors--teal, purple, blue, rose, yellow...

@esh_ga

Thanks for the welcome back. I appreciate it.

A picture taken a year ago of the area behind the "high deck" .

This post was edited by ApprenticeGardener on Thu, May 29, 14 at 12:46

Same relative view taken earlier today. The three trees marked in red above are gone, improving the vista into the back yard and increasing the amount of daylight near the back of the house.

Some Small Forward Steps--

We were fought to (at best) a standstill with the ivy, but there have been some "baby" steps taken.

1. All the new landscape installed last year is doing well. The only loss has been six small ferns that never looked particularly healthy.

2. As mentioned above, three trees were removed.

3. The condo association behind us had their property resurveyed. The markers are still in the ground. This saved me the trouble and expense of having our lot surveyed to verify where our fence will go.

4. We've cleaned out and reorganized the storage area under the "Florida Room" (between the decks) so we can actually find things within seconds instead of minutes (or ever).

5. Lawn care and lawn maintenance have each been turned over to professionals. This is surprisingly less expensive than we first thought (when compared to getting and keeping the correct materials and equipment), and has the additional benefit of making sure our investment is preserved. If also provides us the ability to concentrate more on the plantings.

6. Our neighbor continues to be extremely cooperative in letting us plant on the shared slope between our houses. This has involved removing (what else) ivy up the bank.

7. The neighbors across the street have "spoken for" the basketball goal, which I was afraid had become a fixture.

We're feeling very positive about this coming year of gardening.

Since I managed to miss the Georgia Native Plant Society sale, I was looking forward to the Georgia Hosta Society Show and Sale. Even marked it on my calendar..

Except I put it on the wrong weekend. It was last weekend, not this upcoming one...

Sigh...

Thank you for sharing your projects and pictures, Carl. I have really enjoyed reading this thread! Great stuff. :)

Well, my father always said that the road to #$@^ was paved with good intentions. It's been almost a year since I last posted. I had hoped to do better and have no real excuse. The trees shown several posts above have been taken down, most of the plantings put in have survived, new deck furniture has arrived, and the landscape in general (particularly in the front yard) is maturing nicely. Will post some pictures fairly soon (says he who has said that before and not done so). If anyone may be interested in acquiring the wrought iron table and chairs shown above, let me know. They have not been refinished and are now "surplus" to our needs.

Well, it's been a little over a year. Soon after my last post I began having severe problems walking and maintaining my balance. Diagnosis--worn out hip. Had a total replacement in October and just last week got my final release from the surgeon. Thanks to some intensive PT and a desire to be able to walk again, I'm now back at it in the landscape. Many changes coming soon (a tree crew is in the yard even as we speak). New pictures posted soon (really--I promise--really do). BTW--The wrought iron is still available.

Front water oak is diseased and will be taken out tomorrow if it doesn't rain.

These two hardwoods (one is an oak) will also be taken out. They are growing into the retaining wall and in the way of expanding the parking pad.

Compare this to previous photos of the neighbor's fence and the "shared area" between our two lots. Three pines were taken down in this area. Two were actually on the neighbor's lot (saved us some money). The third and largest was leaning toward the house. It had to go.

There were eleven (11) redtip photinia screening the neighbor on the other side. All were taken out today. A pathway and fence will replace them at ground level. We will add screening on that side to the deck off the master bedroom. This is a picture of our view late this afternoon. The redtips had grown so dense that we didn't know there was a dogwood in the mix.

Just to the right of the area pictured above are two trees, a hardwood (poplar?) on the left and a pine on the right. The pine goes tomorrow. The hardwood stays.

Where is this going? After the trees are gone and the stumps ground, we'll wait until fall to replace the water oak in front. In the back, a small crew will come in and finish clearing the English ivy. Once that is done, we'll transplant some smaller trees (currently still in the "nursery" area) and create some paths. The tree crew brought a blade along for their Bobcat, and will have done some grading to level out an area (remember the basketball goal area?) for a firepit and seating area. Redoing the decks and creating a connecting walkway between the two areas and a new set of stairs has risen on the "to do" list. More later...

Rain today.

Water oak is coming down as we speak. The two hardwoods may be able to be taken down today also, pending clearance issues with power/phone/cable wires. If not today, then probably tomorrow morning.. That would leave only the one pine in the back yard, a few privet stumps, one ligustrum and some stump grinding left to do. I had forgotten how messy a job like this was, even with a careful crew like the one we have.

The water oak and the two hardwoods are indeed down and gone. Little damage to the shrubs, primarily the azaleas. Stump grinding has yet to occur

.

Haven't focused yet on the development of the previous planting. Here is the rest of the bed around the (previous) water oak. Azaleas, hydrangea, and loropetalum. (The ferns were moved from beside the stone walkway down the slope so they wouldn't get trampled).

Finally a photo that shows the foundation plantings, Japanese maple ("bloodgood"), weeping cherry and knock-out roses. The knock-outs were severely pruned and are very showy. The maple was trimmed by a master gardener several months ago. Cedar immediately to the left of the weeping cherry has been limbed up to about 10 feet to allow more sunlight onto the Empire zoysia lawn at that border of the yeard.

Tree work complete except for stump grinding. Pics later this week with planned renovations/planting ideas included.

Hey Carl, it was fun reading up on your annual progress. Your home and surrounding neighbors remind me of the neighborhoods I grew up in (30033 and 30345). I'm in Dunwoody now, OTP, and only in my 2nd growing season here. I think we have a similar addiction.

Keep up the good work. Sad to see the water oak go. I have an oak in my front yard that I'm also concerned about. You'll probably need to relocate those hydrangeas too. The summer sun will scorch them without that tree cover.

@gdpossehl--We're in the Northlake area, so your being reminded is spot on. I used to live on Bend Creek off Dunwoody Club many moons ago, so we probably just changed places. It was sad to lose the water oak. Hard to match the intricacies of its branch growth, but the outer limbs were dying off, the new growth was concentrated in a tight area around the main truck, and it was dropping limbs consistently. The stump is being ground down today and we will wait until Fall to replace it with one or more trees, probably situated a little further away from both the house and the driveway. We'll have to see about the hydrangeas, but they are on our "watch" list.

Plant recommendation: Along your neighbor's fence up on the hill, I would suggest limelight hydrangeas--space 5-6 of them ~4ft apart and 3ft off the fence, water them in for a week and they should take off. Plenty of room and sun for them to grow and will put on an incredible show from July-October. If you wait until fall after the nursery stock has bloomed you can pick some 1-3 gallon pots up for $10-$15 each on clearance (some negotiating may help if you're buying multiples). I planted some in early November (which was quite warm last year) and they've done well so far.

Excellent recommendation. We have discussed hydrangeas for that general area and also further along toward the front of the lot (still on the slope) since we now have considerably more sun in those areas than we did even two years ago.

Pine in back yard that was directly in front of this poplar was removed and stump ground. About one cubic yard of shavings have been moved to the areas shown in the next picture. The remaining shavings have been spread and leveled and will remain where they are.

The shavings were moved to the area in shade in this picture. Altogether about three cubic yards of shavings from three different ground stumps was moved to this area. The area the shavings is covering has been cleared of English ivy by a very primitive but effective method--a Bobcat with a toothed blade. Some stems still remain, but the area can now be much more easily "controlled".

A fairly close shot of the remains of the stump that can be seen in a previous photo near the neighbor's grey fence. About a cubic yard of this material was moved to the area shown in the previous photo. There's about a yard left.

Over the Memorial Day weekend we (my wife, son and I) moved the "stump mulch" ourselves from three different locations. We are about ready to put down some bermuda seed (the tree removal did wonders for "unshading" the back yard "lawn" area) in the back, but still need to find some wheat straw available for sale in the general area. The remaining "stump mulch" will be used to cover some of the remaining areas in back for the time being.

One of our other projects this weekend was to clean out downspouts and the drainage lines into which they go. In doing so, we have identified that several of the lines are really clogged and one of the main lines has collapsed. All the lines need to be replaced. They are currently made of black corrugated material and should be constructed of heavier/larger material. Calls are in to several drainage contractors, but some trenching in a number of areas (fortunately all adjacent to or in the back yard area) will definitely be needed. This will postpone some of the projects we had contemplated as recently as a week ago, but should not stop redecking both the 'high" and "low" decks.

We're also seeing some grass areas that were damaged from the tree removal show up, so some resodding will need to take place.

This and the next two pictures show the present "condition" of the back yard and can be compared directly to previous photos taken from the same vantage point.

Here's the first picture of this side of the house. Eleven overgrown redtip photinia were removed and their stumps ground. We'll be making a pathway next to the house (the railing is hiding the area) and either putting in a screening fence with some small plantings or a row of replacement shrubs (considering ligustrum). Several of the drainage lines run through this area, so that's going to be taken care of first.

Tree crew came back yesterday and loaded and hauled off about a yard and a half of stump grindings from the two locations in the front, leaving them fairly level. Our neighbors across the street also (finally) got their new sod installed. We were "gifted" with about a full pallet of sod scraps that we will use to fill in some spots in the front and side yards (it's all Emerald zoysia).

Took awhile to get our first bid on the drainage work. Waaaaaay too much, so we are back to square one but still needing to get the work done (by another company obviously).

We actually got parts of two pallets of sod. Not much to look at right now, but if it takes it will be about 150 square feet less that we'll have to eventually buy. If it doesn't take, it was at least free.

Since we're in a "lull" right now--no drainage work, too late to plant new trees/shrubs, ivy still awaiting removal, stumps ground and chips distributed or hauled away--we're planning to have the lot surveyed and have started to power wash various of the concrete surfaces.

Here's the driveway after an hour or so of work this morning before it started raining. This may be the last time we clean it. It's the original pour from 1965, and is starting to badly show its age. (Portion nearer the street not yet cleaned).

Having checked on what it would cost to either rent a washer or have it done, we decided to buy our own. It will pay for itself shortly (we also have 5 vehicles that need washing not infrequently--that's anywhere from $6 to $22 each depending on where we took them). We weren't too impressed with the job the

washer was doing until we figured out that we hadn't turned on the pump and were cleaning only with the water pressure from the hose. After turning it on it was a different story entirely!!!

Time flies when you are having.... New things to show once I can take and/or transfer some pictures. Stay tuned.