Yard Work Weekend - continues...

And so the yard reclaimation continued this last weekend.  We've been experiencing cool onshore marine influences the last few days, which means cool cloud covered mornings which burn off after lunch, making for prime yard work conditions, esp. when it comes to tackling ivy.  That stuff is insidious.

We finished beauty barking the front yard Saturday morning, then started tackling our own projects.  DH has started construction of a new fence in the backyard, and I was determined to make a BIG dent in the ivy removal.  Below is the last bed in our front garden that needed salvaging.  Under that mass of ivy is a clematis fighting for its life.  By Saturday evening, it was free to bloom and grow unimpeded and the front gardens are officially Ivy-Free!!

Before:

After (the clematis is on the trellis and was pruned back pretty hard, but I think it will be fine)

DH's new fence project, installing between yard and bank - those will eventually be two foot posts with lattice in between, very likely by next weekend.  He finished up pouring cement into the post holes around 7pm last night.  He claims he's a grasshopper at heart, but he certainly demonstrates ant tendencies!

This is the backyard de-ivy project I started a couple weeks ago further to the left starting in our shade kitchen patio area.  Which looks SO much better now with the addition of bark and hydrangeas.  Here, the de-ivying continues down the bed - you can see the wisteria on the left of this picture which I freed up last weekend.  The big chunk of green in the middle of the picture is what got attacked yesterday.

In process...

And thanks to determination and a good book on my iPod, solid progress was made, and another tree was freed!  That's a pink camillia bush, which also needs a heavy prune, but at least now it can breath.

Here's a fun discovery made while pulling ivy off the fence - it appears to be a narrow flower box - I'll have to do more clearing it out to confirm, and if yes, was clearly installed when all these plants were MUCH smaller and the box actually got sunlight!  I think it is very cool looking, and a fun surprise!

Not sure what branch of the military this rig is attached to, but a couple of 'em were zipping through Colvos Passage towards late afternoon - thought they were interesting looking, so took a picture :)

As there's way too much green in this post, here is some color, and a hummingbird ~ Still trying to capture one on film in flight - but they continue to be elusive little stinkers!

And summer continues to be pretty pleasant here in the Seattle area :)  Taking it while we can get it!  The garden is loving it, the yellow squash, zucchs and broccoli all have little veggies going that soon will be on our table, the carrot patch is going great guns, and there are many blossoms on the the 'maters, which means lots of bruschetta soon - yummmm....