As our faithful readers know, river rock and gravel are a plague on the landscaping of the Retro Ranch. Over the last two years we have dug, sorted and hauled off countless buckets of rock from under the pine trees in the front yard and on the south side of the driveway. Beth did some planting last fall, but with spring in all of its shapes and forms, the front gardens are really taking shape.
Over the course of three weeks, we extended the beds (and reduced the amount of grass to cut) in front of the garage and under the pines. Beth added numerous perennials and while everything looks great now, in a year or three, it will look fantastic. We cleaned up other garden borders and spread over 70 bags of mulch to “finish” the gardens. We even built a small retaining wall near the patio to ease the grade transition.
Beth found annuals for the back garden that hopefully the long-legged rats (the deer) won’t nosh as their midnight snacks. The transformation of the yard from 2017 to now is really a site to behold. Having working hose bibs and spigots to water things is a wonderful convenience too.
The icing on the cake for the landscaping project was the new mailbox. When we first bought the Ranch, our mailbox was engulfed in ivy and was, like many things at the Ranch, not the most functional of boxes.
After freeing the old mailbox (and our neighbor Martina’s) from the overgrowth of ivy, I painted the post and replaced the mailbox with a “temporary“ box that served us well for two years.
Beth had found period appropriate “vintage” mailboxes in the perfect color palates to properly accent the Ranch. One of the reasons we painted the front door orange last summer was that we had a matching mailbox picked out.
After expanding the front garden (and with approval of the United States Postal Service) we installed our new “Modbox” mailbox in the garden (in line with the front door). It’s the cherry on top of the milkshake!
Just wondering, does anyone else have a craving for a Dreamsicle ice cream bar right now?
Coming soon to the Retro Ranch blog – the kitchen/dining room and hall facelifts.
