Backyard Project

This summer our big yard project has been working on the hillside between our neighbor's house and our house. The neighbors who used to live there put in a chainlink fence--yuck! We are NOT fans of chainlink! So, we have that eyesore to deal with...such a pity since the rear of our yard backs onto a greenbelt and on the other side of our yard we have trees (and a few sticker bushes...) between us and the other neighbors.

Anyhow, a couple of years ago we planted photinia at the top of our hillside in order to have a quick-growing hedge to hide the unattractive chainlink. In the meantime we've been trying to manange the groundcover and assorted plants the previous owners of our home planted.

Well, it has been a losing battle--the groundcover was out of control and we couldn't get through the groundcover to get to the roots of the weeds that were growing through...in short, it was a MESS!
So, our solution is to rip out everything except the photinia. We're about halfway done with the length of the hillside and it is looking better already! We're exposing all sorts of small boulders that previously were hidden under the mess. We're going to put down landscape cloth and bark and probably some rhodies. It will be SO much easier to maintain and will look so much better than the mess we have been dealing with for five years.