Planting rose bushes along fence

Happy Monday!  Sorry for the absence here – life is just busy with an almost 2 year old and although I have many projects I am always working on, finding computer time and not having a pretty-Pinterest after to share convinces me many times it’s just not worthy enough to share.  But I miss sharing our home and life with you, so if are ok with seeing the before, and the in-progress pictures and not expecting Pinterest-worthy posts then you are at the right place. 

For Mother’s Day this year I really just wanted more plants and work done in our yard.  I plan to share a 2 year update on our front yard soon – everything has grown in so pretty and blooming and I LOVE it!  We still have so much more work to do especially in the back yard but when I get discouraged I have to remember what we started with and how far we have come – one day it will all be pretty!

But let’s back up to late fall…

We had these evergreen trees that were growing along the fence.  But apparently over the years some had been lost or cut down because there were missing gaps where a tree should be and honestly these were just overgrown and ugly.

They were too close to the fence and growing into and over the fence and just needed to be removed.

So I finally bought a chainsaw and chopped them all down one day!   We had many bonfires over the winter burning them and other stuff we had trimmed and cut down and it was looking better already.

I got the stumps ground early this spring and pressure washed the fence, and then waited for warm weather to finally come and stay.  There isn’t much space here as I am standing in the road to take this picture.  So there is fence and a small strip of grass and then the road.  I thought that planting rose bushes along the fence would be so pretty!

So I stalked the clearance racks at Walmart and Lowe’s for Knockout rose bushes.   Are you a clearance plant stalker?  I LOVE it – but of course you probably already knew that.    Lowe’s and Walmart seem to have the best plant clearance in my area – just look for the section or racks at your store that have markdown signs or labels.  Some plants will need a little loving care but some are still perfect, they are just clearancing them out to make room for new plants.   Almost all my plants and flowers I buy come from some kind of clearance rack or a discount nursery I visit once a year.  I ended up finding 5 red Knockout bushes for $5.70 (marked down from $10)  and 4 larger pink double knockout rose bushes for $7.10 (marked down from $15) so I got $110 worth of rose bushes for $55.  🙂   I planted red, pink, red, pink going all along the fence leaving plenty of room for them to grow in the coming years.

My husband helped dig those huge holes in our GA red clay and we got them all planted on Mother’s Day weekend

There are buds on all of them and a few blooms but they are small and will take a while to grow and be in full bloom.  But it never takes Knockout Roses long!  It will also take a while for the grass to completely grow in under where those trees were and I’ll have to share an updated picture of this space later this summer.

Here’s a few of the blooms…

I’ll share a completely updated tour of at least our front yard next week but here’s a sneak peak. :).

These are my clearance Knockout rose bushes I planted last year – they are triple the size and loaded with buds and blooms.

So here’s the before…

And here’s the in-progress picture…

Not Pinterest perfect but so much better!