It's a Jungle Out There!

Hello everyone! I hope everyone had a good 4th of July! It was a bummer that it was in the middle of the week, but we still enjoyed oureselves to a barbeque and fireworks on our friend's rooftop.

Before this week it was "long time no see," but I was on vacation a couple of weeks ago for my family reunion and Las Vegas trip (I promise to post on that soon!). To hopefully continue this blogging "streak," I thought I'd give you an update on our tax refund renovation.

After careful consideration Justin and I decided that we would use the money toward a front yard fence. The reason now being that the backyard re-haul wasn't something we felt comfortable swinging at the moment, especially since we are now working with less money.  We are now putting some of that money into the "Joanne New Car Fund". After some pricey repairs, my ten year old car is starting to show its age and driving 30+ miles a day in bumper-to-bumper traffic is not helping help either. wah wah. 

So here's the game plan: 

• Use one third of the money for the fence to start construction in a week or two
• Use another third toward a fabulous international trip (time/location TBD)
• Save the last third to put toward a car for purchase by the end of the year

Okay, now break! Lol, I kid...I just wanted to give you an update because what this post is really about is the backyard, and although we can't renovate it at the moment, it is definitely on our short list of things to do (largely in part to what we had to do last weekend...). 

Although our backyard is approximately 90% concrete slab, it has the uncanny knack of growing weeds. Not your typical dandelions, clover, and whatnot. I mean seriously 'roided out weeds that resemble something from the planet of Endor (any Star Wars fans out there?). 

These weeds are as tall as our grill (under the green cover).

Justin about to tackle the weeds

And they are freakishly weird too...

Is that a carrot? Nope, just your typical weed root. Gross,huh? I pulled it out myself. 

Anyways, with a little bit of elbow grease and some weed killer, we were able to handle the situation as it went from this:

To this:

In hopes of doing some weed prevention we placed our bricks along side our driveway. After all, if we are using the bricks to cover the dirt, then there won't be anywhere for the weeds to grow, right? Or at least that's my reasoning. :)

Nice and neat (and weed free):

I must mention that compared to last year's annual fight with the weeds, last weekend's "grill-high weeds" were the least of our problems...

WARNING! The following pictures are not for the squeamish or the faint of heart...

Behold, pictures from last year's encounter with the weeds.  When we first moved into our house, you can say that the backyard was not given the attention it should have been given.  This was mainly due to the fact that we were so busy painting rooms, decorating, etc.  The result was a back yard with weeds as tall as myself (I'm 5'3").  The positives of it all was we got the "greenery" were wanted to add to our backyard; however, it wasn't the most aesthetically pleasing sight a homeowner would want for his or her own back yard.  

The project took about a whole weekend to complete (considering that Justin was alone, sweating it out during the first day).  In the end, our joy of a "weed free" backyard was short lived.  About two-three weeks later they eventually came back.  By that time, Justin and I had given up (especially since the end of summer had come), and just lived with our new backyard friends until they died off in the Fall and Winter.  This brings me to my question to you all that have your own back yards, and prefer not to contract out the landscaping/yard services to another company.  How do you keep the weeds in your yards from coming back, after toiling in the heat, pulling them out, and then even spraying Round-Up or other weed killers?  Is there a certain process you have found to be more effective than just merely pulling the weeds out of the ground?