Neighbors generosity prompts major yardwork

Honestly - how did we get so lucky? We might have the world's best neighbors. This is only 1 of many reasons they are the best:

Wagon chock full of 60ish hostas!

After a casual, "I'm going to be working in the garden this weekend now that school is out. Do you guys want some plants?" we received this wagon FULL of hosta from our next door neighbors. There was also sedum, black eyed susan, and some other plant that has really really really soft light green leaves. Like almost furry soft. Anyone know what those are called? Despite my efforts to turn my brown thumb green, I still have no clue what they are called!

The yard is a mess all around the house. Weeds, construction debris, gravel, broken bricks, full bricks, and the occasional patch of actual grass all peacefully coexist. Until the windfall of beautiful, free plants! I decided to line the east side of the house with the hosta and pot the rest to use once the professional landscaper has performed his magic on the backyard.

Here are the progress photos:

Before: dirt, weeds, nothing pretty

During: I dug a trench....because I thought
spacing the plants would be easier this way.

After: The hosta are in! Hooray!

After: different view

I am sad to report that 3-4 of the hosta are NOT happy. They are wilted and flat to the ground and in no way thriving. I fear they may be getting too much sun. I'm not sure though. Does anyone have any expertise on hosta? Particularly after they've been transplanted? I could have overwatered them initially; a friend told me that more plants die from over watering than under watering. I might have helicopter parented these poor plants to death. Darn it. I suppose there is a chance they could come back next year?? Tell me there's a chance!

Here's a shot of the front garden bed:

The bushy plant on the far right is the only thing in this bed that survives from our home's previous owner (or probably more likely renter). It is almost done flowering - it has white blooms that look quite like a hydrangea; but it isn't a hydrangea! Again, not sure what it is. Someday I might learn!

As I look at this photo I am realizing I should take an updated one. I've planted more in this bed since the photo was taken! 

What do you have growing in your garden/yard/community plot/pots/etc? I'm trying to glean as much from others about what they do to learn how to be better at this whole gardening thing!

Back yard bliss....someday!

A few of the delicious raspberries that grew in the garden before we took it apart! 

As with many things at our new (old) house, the backyard had been largely ignored by its previous owners. Our tenants did their best to keep it nice, though some of their hard work was undone by yours truly yesterday. Our tenants (who moved out in June) built a large raised bed garden in the backyard. Since it hadn't been tended in quite awhile, it was overgrown with weeds - some of them were simply giant. Jack & the Bean Stalk sized. See the photo below with our friends & the weeds (Dan is over 6 feet tall for some context).

Dan & Maddie with the 8-9 foot weeds

We signed the contract with Matt, our general contractor, 2 weeks ago & our permit application was submitted to the City of Evanston last week. Knowing that in the coming weeks & months work trucks will be using the back yard as a parking lot, we thought it prudent to remove the worst weeds as well as the raised bed.

Some might argue that Chris & I chose an odd time for intense manual labor in our new backyard, given the weather report of highs in the 90s, sunny skies, and high humidity. We probably wouldn't have chosen last weekend if our next several weekends weren't so jam packed with fun plans! 

Before our work - massive weed patch!

Before our work, you can barely see me over the weeds

We pulled, clipped, chopped, raked & hauled for over 4 hours. We filled seven 30 gallon yard waste bags. In some ways it feels like we didn't make a dent in the crazy weed patch; in others, it seems like we made a lot of headway! 

After our day of labor - look all that dirt :)

After our day of labor - I can't say "no more weeds" but there are far fewer weeds!

Chris needed to work Sunday, so I went back to Grant St. to attack the raised bed garden. My dad loaned me his drill to make removing the screws easier/quicker. In his infinite wisdom he also offered a hatchet and crowbar to knock the pieces of wood apart. Breaking stuff apart holds great appeal. It seems I now understand my nephews' inclination toward knocking down anything they build :)

In progress - busted down garden bed

After - breaking apart the roots and packed in dirt in the bed was for sure the hardest part - but voila! Done!

For those of you who I haven't yet complained to about it; our backyard is not just rife with your run of the mill weeds. We also have a bamboo problem. According to our old tenant, a "nutty professor" rented the 1st floor of our house for 20+ years and everyone suspects that he planted the bamboo. It is persistent & grows REALLY fast. I'm in the market for a loaner panda bear if anyone has any leads.....because they would eat the heck out of the bamboo! We are well on our way to backyard bliss. A long way to go to be sure, but we made some progress!







Ah! I almost forgot! Chris wanted to buy a gas powered lawn mower for our new house as soon as the weather warmed enough to warrant lawn mowing. I pushed for a "people powered" mower since I thought it would be easier to manage once the construction gets
underway. I won that battle, but Chris has now won the war! When we were at the house Saturday working in the yard, our neighbor gave Chris a "permanent loan" of his gas powered mower! Chris had Christmas in August! He is pretty happy with his new toy.