Before and After

This wooden private fence had been hiding a huge yard waste pile, over four feet high and six feet wide. It seemed it had been sitting there for years. You think that must be good compost. Unfortunately, it was far from black gold. Most part of the pile was pinecones and pine needles. They hadn't processed even others in the pile was. I'm not patient to wait those pinecones and pine needles get composted completely. And, my town collects yard waste in spring and fall. Here was an opportunity. It was time to say good bye to the pile. However, the compost shouldn't be wasted. So, I went over the pile with a sieve. The compost was used for the flower beds at the back door steps. And, about 20 yard waste bags were picked up. The trash guys must hate us. Well, I started working on the pile a couple weekends prier to the yard waste collection began. We put out all 20 bags at once. Some of them had wet stuff and they were quite heavy. I don't complain they hate us.

Now, the pile is gone, but we have three compost bins in the area. They are not quite pretty to get exposed. I still want the area to be covered, but we don't need this big 6x8 tired fence. Here is another good-bye! Let's get rid of this ugly fence. Demo time! ... Uh, we didn't destroy the fence with a sledge hummer. It had been standing there for years to cover the unpleasing look pile. We respect its dignity for that. We disassembled it. Chad cut it down to smaller pieces. He removed the posts. It seems we are going to have hot chocolate by a fire pit. We might have some marshmallows, too. One of the posts was sitting in concrete. The concrete needs to be removed. Concrete is something hard to dispose. You cannot just stick in a trash barrel with other trash. I found this: How to Dispose of Leftover Concrete. It seems we need to use some paid service for it.

Ta-dah! I put up the two panels of the willow trellises. Three clematis were planted. At the end of the trellises, the raspberry from Olga got its permanent home. Raspberry is a quite aggressive plant. To avoid it spreads all over the place, it was planted into a terracotta pot buried in the ground. It will take a couple of years, but they will get bushy. Their leaves cover anything behind the trellises. Plus, they bloom and add some colors. The first clematis is already blooming on the ground... this is not what I expected. They need to get tall first before putting flowers.

Speaking of the raspberry, a bumble bee has been flying around it all the time. When I tried to move it from one side to another, he was so upset. He thought I would take it away from him. He flew around me as if he was going to sting me. I just moved it a couple of feet. He did a great job with pollination. After flowers were gone, you see the fruits are growing. Thank you, Buzz! Keep up the good work.

We won't get any blueberries, but might get some raspberries. I feel I should support bees more. I researched a little bit about how to invite bees to the yard.

This is like inviting wild birds to a yard. It seems providing food and shelter is a key. Well, that makes sense. My next project is building a couple of bee houses.

Looking back some progress I made this spring...

When we moved in...

Now...

When we moved in...

Now...

When we moved in...

Now...

Last winter, Virginia, the previous owner of the house, past away. She loved this house so much. She and her husband good took care of the house. I hope she would like the changes we have made. I wish we could have tea together over stories of the house in old days.

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