Do you guys ever watch Yard Crashers on the DIY Network? You know, it's the show where some innocent man heads to the home improvement store for a couple of boards to fix a fence in his backyard, runs into the host of the show, Ahmed Hassan, who asks him what he's up to for the day, and the innocent man ends up bringing home a TV crew and a slew of yard men who turn his simple fence project into a backyard oasis, complete with fountain and flat-screen TV. Have you seen it? We don't actually get the DIY Network at our house but my parents do so I've caught the show several times at their house. I love it! Now I find myself looking around for Ahmed anytime I'm at the local orange or blue store. We have a strict rule at our house: if a random stranger approaches you at the home improvement store and asks what you're up to, say yes and bring 'em home!
And guess what??
Yard Crashers totally happened at our house yesterday!
It was exactly like on the DIY Network, only Ahmed didn't ever approach us at a store. In fact, he never made it to our house. The camera crew and the yard men didn't either, now that I think about it. And it seems we're still waiting on the fountain and flat-screen TV.
Okay, okay. So maybe it was just me and Doc doing some yard work by ourselves. Where's the fun in that?
But now that I've got you so curious (you are curious, right?) I suppose I can show you how we crashed our own yard.
See these trees here?
They're in our side courtyard and, once upon a time, they were really pretty. The previous owners of our house hired professional landscapers to work their magic. The pros are the ones that brought in the five tree/shrubs above to soften the big wall of our neighbor's house and to give us a nice green view from our kitchen windows. I must say that I've really enjoyed having them there. We've been in other courtyards on the street that don't have lush green plants against their neighbor's big blank wall and it doesn't feel nearly as warm and inviting.
But here's the problem: these two on the far left decided they didn't want to live anymore.
They gave up on life sometime this past winter but we thought we'd give them til spring to see if maybe they wanted to give it another go and green back up. They were still goners, though.
Obviously we knew they had to go. But then what do we do? We'd have three adult-sized tree/shrubs on the right, and a big hole on the left. Sure, we could plant new ones, but they were going to look like dwarfs next to the others.
We racked our brains on how we were going to fix this problem and decided yesterday, Good Friday, was the big day. My very own yard crasher got his tools ready.
And out came the dead plants! (Which I apparently didn't take a picture of. Use your imagination - three big trees and a big hole.)
Here's how we decided to fix the lopsided problem. We dug out the middle of the three good trees - the second one from the right - and re-planted it on the far left.
So now, when we get ready to plant two new trees that will inevitably be smaller, we'll have a nice tall-short-tall-short-tall pattern going on. Genius, right?
Let's just hope that uprooted and then re-planted tree makes it. Right now it's getting its lean on, so some stakes and rope are in order.
As for what I was doing while my husband was digging big holes in the flower bed, I finally got around to planting some ferns and creeping jenny in all of our pots.
Sure, they may look puny now, but I'm counting on them doubling in size over the summer. Fingers crossed.
And that was the extent of our yard crashing. Turns out we didn't even need Ahmed, but that doesn't mean I'm going to stop looking for him at the home improvement stores. Maybe some day...