the dread plant houttuynia

i've mostly posted pretty pictures so far, and that is unfair. there's a lot that isn't pretty when making over a house, even a great little house like ours. we were hoping to plant new things in the foundation beds this year after cutting down the prickly barberry bushes...

barberry bushes - hate the color with our brick facade

barberry bushes - destroyed! yay! 

but when i went for the ground cover i quickly realized that we've got a problem. after identifying it as the alien invasive houttuynia cordata, or chameleon plant, by its strong scent (which i find downright sickening) i came across this website full of other gardeners' horror stories. i dug a little deeper to investigate. sure enough, our chameleon has grown into the asphalt and fully under a 4' concrete walk, and the roots break too easily for us to cleanly pull out 100% of the offender. since each tiny bit of root can become another rapidly spreading plant, we can't win this battle quickly.

so after a lot of research and discussions with mom, here's the plan.

1. spray with round-up (the plant thought this step was a cute joke, it had a good chuckle and sent up new leaves immediately)

2. remove concrete walk, which in all honesty we wanted to do anyway. this was the perfect excuse to spend the $$

3. dig up as much of the plant as possible and cart away all the removed soil to eliminate maybe 90% of the roots and pieces, if we're lucky
4. fill hole with soil and mulch and wait for the inevitable regrowth
5. check each week for new growth and spray with poison ivy killer to exhaust the roots
6. definitely won't plant anything new until spring, so i can do another round of chemicals when it emerges
7. after planting in spring, if possible, continue to pull up every little leaf that pops out of the beds so that maybe, in 10 years, the roots will run out of energy

if you think i'm exaggerating, start googling chameleon plant. and see these photos of how much it grew in one season in our front yard.
here's april - note all the other lovely plants in the garden, living in peace:

here's july - the chameleon plant has gobbled up everything in its path and is starting to take on the nearby grass:

kind of pretty, right? until i realized how fast it's growing and how much it would cost to have it dug up and carted out of my life, i thought so too. now i have nightmares about it growing into the house through the chimney....beware the dread plant houttuynia!

the chair-and-a-half

with our housewarming gift from dad, we replaced two uncomfy cheapo chairs with this behemoth with a white slipcover, so i can machine wash and bleach it. both the chair and the cubby organizer are from pottery barn.

george-proofing, cont.

The mulch and groundcover approach to the shady side yard was disastrous. It ceased to look like the photo in my previous post after 24 hrs, with $100 worth of periwinkle and a newly uncovered (from beneath holly leaves) patch of creeping jenny being mercilessly relieved upon and paw-tilled daily. In trying to make the path to the backyard less muddy I had somehow created the zoomy-and-poop heaven of boxer george's wildest dreams. So I opted for more rocks. As a new gardener, rocks are my new bff. Every piece of rock is a piece of yard that will stay where I put it and won't ever harass me again. So I bought 18 more flagstones from HD and broke my back. This is probably where we still stay through winter. Next stop....front yard!

and the perfect end to a long successful day in the garden - summer pasta with zucchini, onion, garlic, fresh mozzarella, cream, kalamata olives - and tomatoes and basil from our backyard.

shade garden progress

our side yard is getting a makeover. grass isn't growing well in the shade so we are replacing it with flagstone walks and ground cover. today i spent a grueling 5 hours taking out the grass, tilling the soil with my new bff (electric tiller), and laying the stone and mulch.

side yard - BEFORE

side yard - will be planting hostas around the bird bath...btw it was $39 from home goods! love!

side yard - view from gate

side yard - view from shed

electric tiller bff, which helped a ton with breaking up the sod

side yard - that stone landing on the left is where doggies will jump out once we get the doggie door installed under the window!

dining room pendants

love these pottery barn harlowe pendants with filament bulbs! really dresses up our quaint dining area and the chicken wire and handblown glass fits perfectly with our raw pine table. phil and his dad had quite a time putting them up - replaced a flush mount and had to move everything over a couple feet and add a dimmer. mom already patched the hole from before so now we just need to paint. thanks m and d!

deck garden

so here was our cute little backyard when we bought it:

  

and here is our backyard as of this morning, one week after move-in:

 

the deck was built while the sellers were renting back (we are eternally grateful for their willingness to work with us on that, it ended up being more trouble than we expected) and this past tuesday jk enterprises delivered one pallet of pennsylvania fieldstone and one pallet of topsoil.

on friday those piles were gone and we had surrounded our new deck with gardens!

now THAT is a nice place to sip on a mint julep while george darts by with his ball. and i definitely think some relaxation is in order. we are glad that we did the project ourselves despite our angry muscles and heat exhaustion. they don't call it sweat equity for nothing!

independence day - progress report

we have been busy bees...here's our home at the end of day 5.

fireplace before and after

living/dining in sticks and stones by sherwin williams

i love our rug - a thomas paul design! coordinates so nicely with george :)

den before and after - paint is urbane bronze by sherwin williams

mudroom before and after

cozy guest room featuring oceana print by thomas paul

backyard transformation in progress...rock wall, ground level deck, took out sand box and filled with sod

by cocktail hour on the fourth it was definitely time to relax with mom and the dogs.