Shane and I took full advantage of the fact we both had off this Memorial Day and did some much needed yard work. After seeing the English Ivy slowly take over our backyard for months, we knew it was time to do something about it! We aren't sure where the ivy came from or who thought it was a good idea to plant it, but one thing is for sure... ITS GOTTA GO!!!!
The Opponents
I guess we should start with some "before" pictures of our opponents: the back yard.
As you can see the Ivy is EVERYWHERE!! Below is a different view to put it in perspective of how much there is. It looks like a bad disease is growing on our fence.
And of course I cant forget the flower beds. The first before picture was taken in April, when I attempted to plant flowers from bulbs and seeds. I, however, failed miserably. After weeks of rain and personal neglect (sorry flowers) the beds were now full of flowers... or weeds. Probably more of the latter. Actually, I'm pretty sure I was starting to grow oak trees. Whoops.
Yes I know, its embarrassing. I guess you could say I let it get out of hand. I was scared to pull anything out because I wasn't sure what were weeds and what were flowers.
Round One
Our day began at about eleven while it was a cool 80 degrees. Shane started on the ivy and I started on the flower beds. My first thought was to try to save some of the flowers. That quickly went south when i decided it was just way too hard and way too hot to try to save anything. With my shovel and trusty Lowe's yard bags I began clearing out all the
flowers weeds. Shane pretty much took out all his built up aggression on the ivy. He pulled it out, cut some with garden shears, and also raked the ground from dead leaves and such.
Once we found a good stopping point it was time for lunch and a quick trip to Lowe's for NEW flowers and mulch. Our quick trip ended up taking two hours and three stops. Subway for lunch, Shane's first trip to Sam's Club (he said he could spend hours in there), and finally to Lowe's. After a long debate, planning, and picking out our top picks, we were on our way back home.
Round Two
Once home, it was another 4 long hours of planting and pulling out more ivy. For some reason the bottom flower bed was pretty much clay, so it took me forever to shovel out planting holes big enough for our flowers. The top bed was not nearly as hard because it seemed like a mixture of dirt and top soil. While I was busy planting flowers and dodging an annoying wasp, Shane was finishing up the rest of the ivy that he could pull out, then he went in for the big guns... one big jug of Round-Up! The roots and stems that were either too hard to pull up or stuck to the stones were sprayed with the weed killer. Not to make matters worse, but there is also ivy growing on the other side of the fence (of course) which should be our neighbors yard, but they have a deck in the back and what is pretty much a fence-void. Therefore, ivy grows, and we cant get back there to kill it. For now, Shane used the Round-Up to spray in between the fence slats, hopefully killing whats behind.
And The Winner is...
SHANE & ALLI
After fighting with spaghetti-like ivy branches, flower beds made of clay, and one determined wasp. We finally finished the backyard. Here are the "after" pictures!!!
NO MORE IVY (for now). We're pretty sure the crazy stuff will keep growing back, but for now we will enjoy the bare space. Shane has big plans to put in some Drarf Spruce trees or somes that spirals, who knows.
And look at that beautiful flower bed!!! Yes you do see a layer of mulch, so hopefully I can be "weed free for 6 months" like the mulch bag says.
After an exhausting day (we also planted flowers in the front yard which I'll tell about on another day), we ended up with a pretty snazzy looking backyard. Total cost -- about $80 for flowers, soil, and mulch. All of the tools we used we already owned so they were free, and the yard bags from Lowe's were also free because we used some coupons we got from our city's waste company.
Sorry Ivy, you may live to fight another day, but for now, you are out sight - out of mind. :)
