Remember when John met his amphibian friend (well, technically a toad) here?
This time we made a new neighborhood acquaintance: a long, sneaky snake. We were pretty startled, but not too scared to snap a photo. Luckily it was only a harmless garter snake.
Why were we outside? Yard maintenance. Our exterior will need many small projects if it’s ever going to transform the way our last house did over several years. That previous yard evolved slowly, so we’re breaking this one into bite-sized tasks that we can tackle over time.
First up: freshening the mailbox and house numbers with oil-rubbed bronze spray paint. John brought the mailbox over with rubber pot holders because it had been sitting in the sun and was too hot to touch.
Up close the mailbox looked weathered (and yes, hot). I wiped off bird droppings with a wet cloth, then applied a few thin, even coats of ORB spray paint. I also sprayed the rusted screw heads that hold the mailbox in place and the brass house numbers to make everything look cohesive.
For a drop cloth I usually use an old fabric piece or cardboard from the recycling bin, but this time I reused a few large black plastic bags I’ve kept from earlier painting projects. After they dried I balled them up to reuse again — I’m apparently a devoted spray-paint enthusiast these days.
By the end of the day everything had dried and I screwed the pieces back into place. While I was up there I took a few photos of the flowerbed because people had asked for an update on how the plants have filled in.
Here’s how the flowers looked when we planted them, and how they look now next to the freshly painted mailbox. It’s impressive how much they’ve filled in. We only watered them once at planting time, and despite the heat they’ve done well — wave petunias seem to be a great low-effort choice.
Even Lord Squirrelio seems to approve of the expanding flora.
About the mailbox post: we’ve thought about painting it, but for now we like the weathered wood because it blends into the landscape instead of calling attention to itself. A friend who’s a landscape designer suggested that a mailbox post shouldn’t stand out — keep it neat, let it fade into the background. We may paint it later, but for now we’re leaving it natural.
Back to the bigger yard picture: we previously confessed that our mailbox area looked embarrassing before we weeded, added landscaping fabric, planted, and mulched. We also have an odd side yard that looks unkempt and doesn’t feel like it belongs to our lot, even though it does.
The plan was to naturalize that strip to match neighbors’ naturalized areas, but it didn’t go well. It became overgrown and messy, and a few neighbors kindly suggested we mow it before the association noticed. Embarrassing as that was, we admitted it wasn’t working and decided to at least tidy the top strip so the property looks intentional from the road.
John tackled the ridiculously long grass with the mower. It took some time and frequent stops to clear clumps, but slowly the area went from wildly overgrown to a neater, more intentional look at the top, while the slope below remains naturalized so we avoid constant upkeep.
We also planted three fast-growing evergreens in the back to add future privacy. These match the trees we planted on the side of the house and should help screen the yard as they grow.
We did a major round of weeding, too. The soil here seems to produce giant weeds — picture dandelions the size of small shrubs. While we want parts of the yard to be woodsy and natural eventually, those oversized weeds were embarrassing, so we dug them out and removed them.
Our outdoor checklist is long, but here are a few items we’ve recently completed and a few still on the list:
- Weeded the side of the carport (done with help)
- Limbed up the giant magnolia (done)
- Built a side patio (done)
- Weeded, mulched, and planted the mailbox area (done)
- Planted fast-growing evergreens for privacy (done)
- Performed small porch updates (done)
- Upgraded the mailbox and house numbers with ORB (done)
- Planted three more evergreens in the back (done)
- Weeded side and back yard areas so they can naturalize with trees (done)
- Avoid snakes (ongoing)
- Transplant the tree growing too close to the house (upcoming)
- Remove or transplant shrubs that block the walkway and front of the house (planned in phases)
- Paint the front door (planned)
- Frame porch columns and remove the scalloped header (planned)
- Build raised beds and a wood compost bin (planned; we’re currently using a less handsome compost method)
In short, we’re slowly taming this yard with a series of manageable projects rather than trying to do everything at once. It’s a marathon, not a sprint — even the porch is mostly hidden right now — but little updates add up.
How about you? Do you gut your yard and rebuild it all at once, or tackle it one project at a time like we do? Have you ever run into a sneaky snake, a monster dandelion, or received gentle neighborhood hints to mow your lawn? We’re still a bit red-faced about that last one, but it felt good to start making progress.