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Yard Makeover and a Recipe

Lisa Eirene

About Lisa Eirene Lisa lost 110 pounds through calorie counting and exercise. She swims, bikes, runs, hikes and is enjoying life in Portland, Oregon. Her weight loss story has been featured in First Magazine, Yahoo Health, Woman's Day and Glamour.com.

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4 Comments

  1. bethh

    Wow, your yard looks huge, what a pain! And WOW I had no idea that they could use a hose on bark dust. That’s genius (and makes a lot of sense)! Is the hose super long? My yard isn’t really truck-accessible but a long hose could handle the trip from the driveway to the back area.

    It’s so inspiring to see the huge improvements you got with some money – talk about a worthy expense!! I know that I am interested in doing zilch yardwork (I never feel as wealthy as when my nice older guy comes to cut my grass), but I don’t want to pay lots for maintenance either. I’m slowly saving a little each paycheck and I think when I have the right amount, I’ll hire someone to at least come in and give me some ideas and options – then I can figure out if I’ll hire it out or do it myself (ha).

    Enjoy that deck and yard!

    1. Lisa Eirene

      YES! It is a huge yard. Which is nice…it’s great for Bella. She can run laps around the yard and get some energy out and it will be great for Logan. But it’s very hard to manage. Honestly, we probably should have had someone plan out something to make the space a better use…but we’ve kind of piece-mealed it over the years.

      It is a huge relief having someone else do it, make it look amazing (way better than we could ever do) and it didn’t cost a fortune. I’m so so happy with it!

  2. Vickie

    Very large lot here too. And we have dealt with our share of brambles. And poison ivy.

    Your yard looks really great. Very smart to have someone just do it. And it looks like it is now maintainable.

    Our strategy these days is one type of plant per area. So we have beds of ivy, beds of lily of the valley, beds of pachysandra, beds of fern, beds of vinca vine, beds of something with a red leaf that grew on its own and we are letting fill in the whole side. But each of those has been a battle. Get the right thing to grow. Kill the weeds and brambles. Once we finally get it done, the beds are great. But we are still not there. Several beds are still a struggle.

    We have planted milkweed twice, bed right outside our living room window, for monarch caterpillars and butterflies. last year and this year. Has not come up either time. Farmers can’t get it out of fence rows no matter how hard they try. And apparently I can’t plant it. My seeds came from butterfly nonprofit the first time. Nursery the second. If I can get it going, it will be really fun because it is a huge window with a window seat and we will be able to see the action.

    1. Lisa Eirene

      It’s definitely something we can maintain now. Much easier! It was just overwhelming before, and with a toddler? We had no time.

      I like the idea of working on planter beds like that. We’re going to plant our veggies here soon. I usually do some herbs, too. I’d love to plant something else but don’t have much of a green thumb.

      That’s great that you have butterflies! We do have some plants that attract hummingbirds and it’s amazing watching them!

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