Buried Treasure...Blooms....and eggs?

I was out in the yard the other day tackling an area that I have avoided. Reason being I just didn't know what to do with it. There were weeds 10ft high (well almost) as well as a small grouping of trees that were left after the builders cleared my lot but they are not healthy and really I should just cut them down and dig up the roots. However, that is just way too much work for me to deal with and I am a bit of a lazy gardener, so I have just ignored it and ignored it. Yesterday I just couldn't ignore it anymore! It was driving me nuts and I had to tackle it. It was such an eye sore and sitting right behind my beautiful rose bed too. So I grabbed my shovel, lighter, hose and rake and went to town! All the rain we recently received had softened up the ground nicely. I burned all the dried weeds and leaves from last year and overturned most of the soil pulling out any fresh weeds by hand. I dug out some kind of wild shrub that was ugly....that was rough on my back but I did it. While digging I discovered some buried treasure!

OK, so it isn't the kind of treasure one hopes to find but it was kind of fun seeing what my shovel would happen upon next. I found a weight, a measuring tape, and a few light fixtures but no gold, silver or precious jewels. Maybe next time?

Here is the ugly area...

Told you it wasn't pretty! The pine tree shares the property line with my neighbors behind me. When we put our fence up to the left of it we stopped there because the neighbors wanted to take the tree down...themselves! That's another story...

They ended up leaving the tree and finished the fence last year. There is a run off area the runs the length of our backyard that leads to a ditch with a bunch of rocks you can just make out in the photo. Weeds LOVE this area and I HATE it.

So here is my plan for this area... I want it to be an area that needs little to no attention and a bit of a natural look. I decided to leave the trees for now, though one may come down. I chose those purple azaleas you see in the picture above. There are only three but this variety grow huge fast! They will easily take over that entire area in a few years. I decided on a Confederate Jasmine to climb the pine tree to both conceal  it, as well as for its scent. It grows by leaps and bound here and climbs on it's own. When it bloom, OH MY the smell...just heavenly!

I wish I had taken a picture before I did the work because it was even uglier. I love before and after photos don't you? I will just have to settle with the ones I have. When I get it all planted and mulched I will taken an after picture. The real difference of course will be in a few years when it has filled in.

In the meantime...

I love to have fresh flowers in the house and so I picked these up the other day on my grocery shopping trip. Milk...check...bread....check...flowers....check!

Pretty aren't they?

Oh yes, the eggs! Keeping chickens is not for everyone. Most people want the fresh eggs but would rather buy them from someone else and not bother with taking care of a flock of hens.  Not me! I enjoy watching my chickens out the window everyday or watching them after I have let them out in the yard as they run around scratching for juicy bugs and grubs. But there is just something to walking out your backyard to collect your own eggs, especially when you have a couple Easter Eggers delighting you with pretty colorful eggs!

That's all for today! Happy gardening, chicken keeping or whatever it is you enjoy doing!