How This Mess All Started

From April to November, my spare time is spend trying to tame my 2.5 acre property. We bought this house in 2001, in February. The owners were landscapers and bragged that they had done $35,000 worth of work to the land. We thought that was a dream come true. We were so wrong. Part of the big *work* done was ripping out what was already here. The previous owners, who had built the home and raised their children here had done a lot of loving work, making their home a woodland escape. They had a huge veggie garden, gorgeous rock garden, herb garden, fruit trees, circular birch grove with sitting area and flower beds. We know this as the people just built a new house down the road and they told us what the property used to look like.

The new owners bought the place and set to work bulldozing everything down. EVERYTHING! They only left a few large trees and a pine windbreak. They wanted to give the place an updated, modern look as they were opening their landscaping business here. Their business failed a few years later and they ended up leaving the country to avoid angry customers and creditors.

So we were left with huge flower beds and a large berm that was over planted and under mulched. There was also areas that were dug up and left that just filled in with thistles and wild weeds. One area was supposed to have been planted with hundreds of bulbs but only a handful ever came up. Slowly, everything became wild. Add to the mix two babies and that is a recipe for disaster. After a few years, I hated the place and wanted to move. I tried keeping up with the weeding but it was a lost cause. Everything I planted got choked out.

I then decided to look at this as a ten year project and tackle it piece by piece. I am trying to focus on what has been accomplished and not on what's left to do. This blog will help me highlight the positive.