The grass has dried enough for me to take landscaping pictures, though you’ll have to ignore the fact that the grass is going to seed, because now that it’s dry enough to mow, Derek is swamped. He has a wedding this weekend up in Knoxville, plus the big Ascension service down here to prepare for.

(I have to say all this up front, because he is very meticulous about the lawn and would probably rather that I waited to post pictures. But today is my day off, so it’s now or never.)

Walk around the house with me, will you? Here’s the view from the mailbox across the road. If you look very carefully, you might see the carcass of a dead rat just to the left of the bags of leaves. The city came by and took it all a few hours ago, and I’m breathing easier now.

There’s a lot of good in this landscape, but here’s some bad. Random thorny spreading things planted in the hillside that are so ugly I’ve got to take them out, but so thorny I can’t without special equipment.

Next to the Thorny Thing are these lovely daylilies. I’d love it if that whole hillside were full of these.

The other half of the hillside is a huge tangle of groundcover, holes, and weeds. I can’t figure out why the previous owners didn’t plant daylilies, or something, across here. I have to figure out what to do with it because this mess isn’t pretty to look at.

The front foundation plants are pretty typical, but I’m itching to rip them out. Azaleas and boxwood are at the top of my Most Hated Plants list. My long-term vision for the front is to build out a huge southern-style veranda across the front and around to the back, connecting with the back porch. In front of it I’ll plant…something else. Maybe Japanese maples and hostas, or ornamental grasses, or big bunches of lavender.

Around the side is another garden bed with good bones that is sparsely planted. There are two oak trees and a dogwood, some dusty miller, a hydrangea (I think), some irises and unidentified daisy-like bunches, and tons of weeds. The whole bed needs to be filled out so the weeds have nowhere to grow. I want to add ornamental grass, sedum, and a big rosemary bush here. Or, depending on where the sun falls this summer, I might make it into a vegetable garden.

Does anyone know what kind of tree this is? We have several around the yard, and they’re gorgeous.

Here’s a closeup of the leaves.

Back in the corner, one of the neighbors behind us dumps all his brush. I think we’re going to put the compost bin up here.

Here’s a look at the back of the house from Compost Corner. Can’t you imagine the big old southern veranda stretching out across the side of the house and connecting with the back porch here? Sorry about the bad light. Need I mention again that I’m no Edie or Jan?

Behind the screened-in porch, nothing but weeds grow. I want to lay down a patio of flagstone and plant creeping thyme in the cracks.

These rails are not safe for Jonathan. Derek and I had a long battle over whether lattice was appropriate (me: yes, Derek: no) but finally compromised. I’m going to do lattice, but plant some kind of evergreen vine and train it underneath so it grows up on the lattice on the garage side. It will be a pretty living green wall when you come up the driveway.

See why I want lattice? I can totally see Jonathan climbing around here.

And, for the finale, not a landscaping picture. I was walking up the steps and was impressed with how long my shadow-legs looked. Why can’t they be this long in real life? Wahh.