YardWORK

 

Our new house and yard have been a LOT of work.  When I drove by our new place for the first time, my initial impression was, "It really needs some landscaping."  Luckily, Jason agreed.  He has spent the last three Saturdays removing the overgrown/dead/hideously ugly foliage and transforming our front yard into something a little nicer.

 

I wish I'd taken a before picture, but the yard was just too ugly to photograph.  Blocking at least half of the house was a cedar "shrub" that had grown taller than the house--it looked like a monster pumpkin that had dropped down from the sky and landed half on, half in front of our porch.  Words really can't do it justice.

 

Jason tried to prune the monster--and although he made it look much tidier, it still looked ridiculous . . . and had to go.

 

So that was Week #1.

 

Week #2 involved the rest of the cedars.  Our next-door neighbors were so happy to see them coming down that they came out and helped Jason load up the trailer for about FOUR HOURS.  That evening several of our other neighbors came up to Jason and told him how surprised they were that there was actually a house behind all that overgrown/dead/hideously ugly shrubbery.  Some of our neighbors even called their relatives to come and drive by to see the change!

 

 

 

 

 

Now, during these weeks I had something else on my mind besides ripping out trees and bushes.  I was thinking about what we were going to put IN to the front yard--pretty much driving Jason crazy with all my diagrams, plant facts (from my reading), and anxiety over how to fix our new problem (at university I learned there is an actual disorder involving the fear of undecorated space . . . ).

 

 

Eric and I spent our days researching--driving by and taking pictures of yards that we liked

 

 

(including this one!),

 

visiting beautiful gardens around town,

 

 

and looking at how much it would all cost.

 

 

Finally, this morning Jason agreed to go with me to the nursery, where we showed the experts our diagram and GOT (most of) THE PLANTS!!! 

 

Jason spent the rest of the day putting them in . . .

 

 

 

with lots of help from our budding young gardeners :) 

I am very happy with how it looks now--and am excited for the plants to fill in and make the garden look even more beautiful.

The neighbors seem to be on board, too, driving by slowly to see all the changes, and commenting on how much better things look.

 

The transformation has been amazing!  Now all we need is some grass. . . .