It's OUT! Finally, a plastic free yard....I think.

 Another two hours of backbreaking work this afternoon and the last of the plastic sheeting is out. I hope. With my luck I'll find more when I tackle the other half of the back yard next year. But at least it's all out in the areas where I planned this year's landscaping for the Slow the Flow Grant. And this last 30' by 30' tarp, below, was the worst. It had a thick layer of landscape cloth over it with up to one inch roots all through it, and another six inches of compacted soil on top of all that. Needless to say I've already taken some Tylenol anticipating the pain I'm going to wake up with tomorrow.





















I started its removal in June, but my four-year-old has decided she no longer wants to help Mommy with landscaping projects, no matter how much I promise she can play in the mud. So our work-time during my two-year-old's nap has come to a stand still and my Slow the Flow landscape project hasn't progressed much since June (hence the lack of blog posts). I'm lucky if I get a few minutes of weeding here and there, or moving a plant around until I'm happy with its location. But today, thanks to my wonderful husband who distracted the kids for two hours, I finally finished this, and it was worth it. It's done and now I can plan the fun part of planting! Of course my four-year-old was perfectly happy to sit on the tarp while I took a picture of it. Figures.

 And she's also perfectly happy to eat her way through our veggie garden. Especially the beans she's in front of in this photo, which I thought I'd throw in as an 'after' shot for something pretty to look at. Where she's standing was a yew shrub a year ago, now it's pole beans, sunflowers, nasturtiums and my tomato and carrot patch. We've noticed the cabbage white butterflies are really enjoying the nasturtiums and the swallowtail butterflies and hummingbirds are loving those sunflowers.


 Here's a shot of that sunflower patch from the other side, the hummingbirds love those red cardinal flowers by the kitchen window so much I went out and bought more. Almost every time I look out the window there's a hummingbird feeding. And the best part about the cardinal flowers is, even though they can grow right in the water, they are amazingly drought tolerant. I never water them and they're always beautiful!