Spring Sprung

See them thar things above? Yep. Flowers. In our yard. Pretty, huh? As the weather gets nicer, it's becoming evident that Mrs. Serpico really liked to plant things, because we're seeing little sprouts and full-on flowers popping up everywhere in out yard. I'm bad with flower/plant names, but I know we have tulips and forsythias. So that's cool.

And remember the ivy-removal project? I got a quote from a landscaper on that--the dude says he needs $350 to get it all out of there, mainly because it's all wrapped around the fence, and it'll be a lot of work. I think I'm going to get another estimate on the job, but I think $350 isn't too bad... it really does look like a lot of work. Having said this much, I can't help thinking I might haggle with this guy a little and see if his crew will add a leaf clean-out for that price. I also think I'll want to get a second estimate from another landscaper. Someone else might come in a little cheaper, and there's pretty much next to no way that they can mess this up.

Another thought, though... I really need to discuss this whole thing with our next-door neighbor before moving forward with the full ivy-removal plan. The ivy is growing heavily on the fence that separates our yards, and he may want it there for some reason. It definitely gives his yard more privacy, that's for sure--I actually can't see into his yard at all from ours. I really hope he's OK with getting rid of it. Obviously, if he doesn't agree to this, the ivy on his side of the fence will just creep back over into our yard in time, making our efforts and expenditure in vain.

So... we shall see.

The Yard

After making yesterday's post, I realized it makes no sense to just say the yard needs work without actually showing what I mean....

So this is one of the flower beds towards the back of the yard. I've swept out enough of the leaves to show the nice shape. It's cool, right? If we pull out all of the weeds and truly clear out the leaves, it'll look really lovely. But we've got to do battle with stuff like this first...

First, you can see the massive amount of ivy and overgrowth. There's actually a raised bed with a short retaining wall around it, but it's covered with ivy, which is also covering the entire back stone wall. And, as a testament to Mrs. Serpico's failure to maintain the yard diligently, perhaps you can see the "mystery lawnmower" under that bush... alongside a plastic trash bag of... something. These items became visible only after the leaves fell off of the trees. I'm guessing we'll need to get them out of there eventually.


This is the corner of our yard next to our neighbor's yard. They obviously don't mind the ivy, but the amount of ivy in our yard is ridiculous. It's out of hand. Too much. I don't think we can pull all of that ivy out of there without some serious help. Hell, I don't want to pull that ivy out of there.
Yes, somewhere back behind that ivy is a nice stone wall.

OK, I've convinced myself. I'm calling a landscaping company.