a tree grows in fairfax

introducing our baby lacebark elm!

here is what the tree will eventually look like...assuming i manage to raise it right.

mabel

the pug just hasn't been featured enough!

fire pit!

we had a lovely fall evening with our new fire pit - and yes that's lamb phil is grilling - until the deck started melting. so we are looking into protective options for azek...ideas???

southern blue, a paver stoop and no more vinyl "shudders"

it's been a big week at chez dufresne!
i finally covered the blah concrete stoop with pavers and painted the front door. I went with "southern blue" by behr, after first trying a color called "caribe" that was just toooo much. painted the shed trim with southern blue as well. perhaps my favorite move was pulling off all the vinyl shutters (aka shudders) that made no sense. finally, i planted some liriope to the right of the stoop where there aren't any chameleon plant roots.

front yard

wow. i'm tired!

before

now

mulch - where the chameleon plant is lurking....potted plants make me happy though!

doggie door

we had to get a handyman after all to finish trimming the outside, but phil did a great job cutting a hole in the side of our house! this is a security boss extra tall pre-framed door.

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!