It’s been far too long of a blogging hiatus! The long weekend got the best of Team Rathroy and while I have about 7 posts sitting unfinished in my drafts folder, none of them were complete enough to throw up on the ol’ blog.
Not coincidentally, the same can be said of our household right now. With a long weekend on the horizon, we spent lots of our free time planning projects to accomplish over the holiday. The list included everything from building a very important piece of furniture to re-landscaping both the front and back yards to bathing the dogchild.
At least the dog smells better.
Our yards, however, will tell a different story about our productivity over the weekend. Despite our constant movement and unceasingly dirty skin for 3 days, our backyard is now just a dirt pit.
After pulling ivy, renting a rototiller, yanking out weeds and filling our green waste can in record time, our yard is now sans-invasive greenery (and sans-greenery in general). The high hope was to get a new pathway put in and start a more comprehensive landscaping strategy complete with pollinator garden and a possible berry or bean growing area. Turns out, pathways are hard to build and invasive grass is a bigger pain than you’d think.
Our major accomplishment over the weekend was finishing half of the front yard – the half that we think most people see when they look at our house. The original front pathway was overgrown, poorly planned, and not at all our style. Thanks to Pinterest, our sites were set on a DIY pallet repurposing project and, whether we it was a good idea or not, that’s what we did.
First of all, don’t ever let someone tell you that deconstructing a pallet is an easy project. If you want those boards in tact, good luck. There are about 1,000 nails in each board and they’re all rusted permanently to the frame.
By the time we were done losing our patience with the nails, Mr. Rathroy began cutting, sanding and weatherproofing every single board while I attempted to take up our existing pathway and accompanying weeds.
Finally, with prep work done, we laid some foundation sand, attempted to level it, and set our rustic pallet pattern.
Finished with a few new plants including lemongrass for mosquito prevention, lavender for relaxation, and pineapple sage for the pollinators, our little front yard got a mini face lift and we can’t wait to expand it to the rest of our outdoors space! The wedding flowers are getting too big for their pots and are just about ready to hit the ground. Here’s hoping they survive in the dirt pit!
Pee in the Beans 