#525...sidescape switch-up

For several years I played manicure slave to some creeping fig growing on my chimney. You can read more about it here.

The constant maintenance and the realization that the fig was damaging the chimney and house siding finally got the best of me.

We had the creeping fig ripped off the chimney last year, and low and behold, half the paint came off with it. It also did a number on the siding, where the fig had overgrown onto it.

In addition to the creeping fig issue, the gardenia hedge next to it also grew out of control, and I hit it with my car every time I pulled in the driveway.

...and the pond pot we put in a couple years ago became a nightmare to keep up too, constantly needing water, and continuing to grow some weird weeds that choked out the lilies.

This area has been sitting unattended for months, so a few weeks ago I decided to tackle cutting down the gardenia. Unfortunately, it had a huge yellow jacket hive inside the bush, and it took several cans of this stuff and a week of waiting to rid it of the yellow jackets.

In the interim of waiting to kill the hive, I decided to tackle the rotted wood attic window cover. 

We really need a pretty window or vent for our attic, but I decided to go the cheap route, and use some aluminum sheeting cut in a vintage pattern that I got at Home Depot.

It's not great, but it looks a lot better. After finally getting the gardenia cut down, we  used landscape rocks to fill in our sidescape, and moved some plants around.

We are waiting for some metal planters to come to house the snake plants. We removed the pond pot and put a pencil cactus in its place.

To the left of the chimney, we added some potted herbs

I added a hanging ceramic planter with a trailing cactus under the porch eave...

...and I brought my pet metal goat outside, and Tyler attached him to our porch railing so he could get some fresh air.

We need to get some of our roof eaves repaired, and then have the house and chimney repainted. Hopefully, we will accomplish that this fall.