The blackberry bush progress

What a difference a few months, a little water and a touch of sunshine makes!

Here is a picture from March when I first received the blackberry bushes in the mail.  They were so cute and I hoped that they would grow and not be fried in the sun. 

Now it is early May and they are showing signs of growth and promise.  I am guessing that they really like the soaker hose.  Plus...it did say that they loved full sun.  Such a good plant for my area.

This was memorial day weekend...so in just a few weeks they have shown great progress...they were laying all around so I tied them to this stake with a little yarn...loosely so that I wouldn't hurt the plant.

This is again only a few weeks later in mid-June.  I was so worried about them that I got a little lattice for them to grow up.  With the wind we later had to screw the lattice to a couple of boards, because I kept finding it laying on its side.  And after all of this work...and 3 months time we didn't want to lose the bushes.

Now...in my last post I talked about how I was worried that the blackberry bush wasn't going to grow very tall unless I got it something new.  That's how I ended up on Lowe's website to find the great deal on the pavers for the front yard.  Well...I never did find what I was looking for at Lowe's, but Amazon rather.  I purchased a beautiful arch lattice that it can grow on.  It came...unassembled of coarse, but it was easy to put together.  I actually did most of it on my lunch hour yesterday.  Then when I got home I finished putting the sides on and took it outside to put it into place.  Only to find out that it was easier to put the sides into place and then attach the top...probably not if there were two people.  Anyway, once I had it all set I started in with the hammer and trying to remove the old wooden lattice that it had been growing on for a few months.  Then again, I took my yarn and tied very loosely the branches of the bush so that they could find the new arch to grow on.  To my surprise when I was done the bushes are much larger than I thought.  The were growing up 4 feet and then turning around and growing back down since there wasn't anything to lean on.  Oh, what a beautiful bush it is going to be...I read the when it blooms it has wonderful pink flowers...and then the berries will come.  I am hoping for berries next year!

Weekend Project

Ideas can sometimes roam around in of our heads for a long time before they come to fruition. This one rolled around R's head for about 4 years. I heard about it at least 2 years ago and thought it was a good idea but that it needed something. So here's the front entry of our home.

You can't see it clearly from the picture but the sidewalk runs along the house and then there are plants all the way up until you get the step and the door area.  Anyway, this area seems to always be mossy and the rocks always sink in.  R mentioned to me that he wanted to use pavers and pave the whole area to create a porch.  That idea had to change some when last year I transplanted the rose bush and another plant from the side of the house opposite the sidewalk (the area that you can't see).  They bush was growing so big that one had to walk out and around it on the way to the front door.  Since that time we really haven't done anything except water the plants and hope that I didn't kill them when transplanting them.  The good news is that I didn't kill them and they are doing well.

Anyway, I was thinking that the front area needed something.  I just wasn't sure what, until about a month and a half ago when I went the the nursery for bug killer (those darn squash bugs ate my butternut squash and my pumpkins!!!).  While at the nursery I noticed that they were selling tulip bulbs.  I was surprised because I didn't think that it got cold enough here to plant bulbs.  The man there told me to just take them home and put them in a brown bag and keep them in the crisper for 4-6 weeks and then plant and they would bloom in the spring.  I am a tulip "junkie" and love to have them all the time when they are in season so I decided to try it.

Then I came up with the idea to have a planter box along with the pavers in the front yard.  I also have some Forget Me Not seeds that I have been looking for a place to plant for about 6 months.  So together the Forget Me Not's and the Tulips would be beautiful. 

Since R is so busy with school I thought I would tackle this all on my own...one day.  Then I was watering the blackberry bush this last week and thought that if I don't get something for it to grow up it is only ever going to be 4' tall.  So I jumped online to see what the local Lowe's had before driving over.  My whole object in getting on was thwarted when I saw that the pavers were on sale and it was the last day of the sale!  I called R and he borrowed his mom's truck and we ran to Lowe's and bought a "ton" of pavers...I am not exactly sure what they weighed...but I am guessing it was a lot.  Being the analytical person that I am I carefully designed the area so that I knew how many of each item we would need.

Because life is so busy during the week the stack just sat there.  Then on Friday after work I started on the project (that is when I took the above pictures).  Our neighbor saw me and came over and asked what I was doing.  I told him I was building a planter box and was going to pave the front area.  He went home and came back with his gloves and his son to help.  We leveled the area and got all of the blocks for the planter box set.  I was so happy with it.  By the way it gets dark so fast, that most of the time we were working with a flashlight.  As our neighbor was leaving he asked me what time I was going to start working on Saturday and offered his help again.  He had me promise that I wouldn't start on it until 4 pm when he got home from work so that he could help.

At 3 I started racking the rocks out of the way and I trimmed the tree so the branches weren't in the way.  And by 7 pm we were done.  However, Lowe's was still open...so I went and bought a little planting soil and some petunia's that were on sale.  It was dark again, but I planted by flashlight the petunia's and the tulips.  Now I just need to plant the Forget Me Not's in and around.  I finished planting and cleanup by 9.

This morning I went out to take some completed photo's and this is what we have now...

I just need to get a hose reel so that it isn't strewn all over the place and a nice bench.  Perhaps for Halloween we'll sit on our bench and hand out candy...if its too cold we'll bring our patio fire pit from the back yard and have a fire.  Can't wait!