My MESSY yard~perennial gardens

With the good comes the bad. I know that on our blogs we all try to share the best of the best. We secretly try to hide our messy closets, dishes in the sink, unclean bathrooms, laundry piled to the ceiling, rooms that have yet to be made over, etc. Well today I have decided to share some of the ugly of my house. I am hoping that by doing this, it will give me a kick in the rear to get going on the never ending yard work I have. If I show you the messy before, I certainly have to show the pretty after. Hopefully sooner than later.

In my defense though to these pictures I am about to share, we have not yet experienced spring yet here in New England. I know there are many of you who will agree with me. It seems like every day has been rainy, windy, or cold. On top of it, we have never ending leaf blowing in our yard and I have been trying to tackle that first. There is still a bit to go, but I have gotten the bulk done.

My yard has 5 or 6 huge perennial gardens. I decided to tackle the clean up of the first one yesterday. This meant clearing out the extra leaves, weeds, sticks, acorns, etc. So, I am starting with a good photo. I'll save the worst for last.

Today it was pretty rainy out, but when it stopped for about an hour I went out to work on the garden on one side of the house. You know how you go to start one project and it turns into an additional one that takes forever? Well that happened to me today. It started with me cleaning this garden up:

When working in my gardens I go section by section. That is when I came across the "problem child".

This section pictured above is growing in the side garden underneath the deck. It is a nightmare combination of ivy, myrtle, ajuga, acorns, leaves, sticks, etc.

On their own, ivy, myrtle, and ajuga are all gorgeous plants. But for me, they have become very invasive and no longer worth the hassle. In addition, the roots of all these are strangling each other. I feel like an abusive mother not allowing my soil to breath. So, this is where that extra project came on today. I decided to tear it all out!

You can see I got quite a bit done, but there is still more to go.

Now onto the nasty.....First I will share the man made pond I put in probably 10 years ago. I still have to empty and clean it. I am waiting for a warm day if this ever decides to happen. Plus, the bad winter we had knocked the stone wall down surrounding the pond. This project clean up is going to be quite a task.

This circular section is on the other side of the house. I have so much trouble with it. It is basically ledge and very hard to get anything to grow there. It is also in the shade. Any gardeners have any suggestions for me?

I'm looking forward to tackling this little "L" section near our stone patio. It should be the easiest and quickest project.

This is my vegetable garden. I just put this in with a paver patio next to it last year. I plan on expanding on it a bit this year.

Lastly are the gardens in my back yard. It consists of many rhododendrons and Mountain Laurels. They actually look amazing in the spring. I just have to get to the ground clean up of this very large section...UGH!

Thanks so much for bearing through this very long post. I am hoping that I will be able to share photos of our "spring yard" like I did our winter yard a few months ago. I wrote this as an inspiration to myself to get going on all of these projects. Who ever would have thought a blog would be so successful in helping to "check projects off the list".

Wishing everyone a fun happy holiday today!