workin in the yard

When we bought our home in early spring this is what it looked like on the exterior.  Granted, it was still very cold so the grass and leaves hadn't grown in yet, but there was a lot of work to do to get the front yard looking nice.  We payed close attention to what the interior of our home was going to look like when we purchased it because neither of us are very good at home improvements.  A few weeks in to the warm end of spring, beginning of summer, the yard started really bothering me.  I wanted to give it a little face-lift.  But, I didn't have a lot of money to spend.  This project was definitely a labor of love, and I do love the way it turned out!  Hope you do too!  

So here is the front, blah!  

 The main thing I didn't like was that there was just DIRT everywhere.  No landscaping really.  I mean, there were some nice lines defined there but just dirt.

 All over!  :)

 Hey!  There's a cute little Japanese Maple though, that I just adore.  It's so cute!  Oh, before I started anything, I planted some wildflower seeds that my dad gave me last winter.  He pulled them off of his plants, put them in a Ziploc bag and labeled them "plant in spring".  I held onto them throughout the winter and was excited to plant them.  The boys helped me and they were very interested in the progress.  It has been amazing to see what they've become.  Pictures below!

 So, my game plan was to just cover up the dirt.  I bought lots and lots of red mulch bark to cover up all of the dirt. It took more than I thought it would.  I bought probably 20 bags of this stuff.  It is heavy!  And I lifted that stuff out of Home Depot, into my sedan, out of the car, onto the yard, and out of the bags all by myself!  I was quite proud of how it turned out too.

 For Mother's Day, my Mom and Dad gave me some plants to go in the front.  There are two purple saliva plants, one white peony, and two other plants I don't know the names of.  Colin helped me decide how to arrange them and I started digging.  One thing I've noticed is that up here on the bluff our soil is all rocky.  I mean, like almost all rocks and sand.  Think South Carlsbad.  No, not that bad, but you get my point.  So, as I dug, I pulled out lots and lots of rocks.  I haven't done anything with the rocks yet but I have plans for next summer, just you wait!  

So, anyway, here's the final product!  This is my yard in late August.  The peony bloomed a beautiful big flower that quickly died.  Unfortunately, you only get one good bloom per year.  Can't wait for next year!

(sneak peek into the back yard which I am purposefully not blogging about) 

Colin worked on the yard a lot this summer too.  He mows every other weekend even though he pretty much hates it.  I don't like yard work much either.  He has also replaced several sprinkler heads and adjusted them so that our yard is always nice and green.  

Over there on the left side of the garage is a new hibiscus flower.  It hasn't done too well, but in the last day or two, it's beginning to show some promise.  

 Quaking Aspen trees are native to Utah and they are my absolute favorite.  I'm so glad that we have four big pretty ones in our yard.  They are awesome!

 These are the wildflowers that I planted in early spring.  I cannot believe how big they've gotten!  Ryan and Evan are obsessed with them!  I think Evan more so.  Right now they are FULL of blooms.  There are three different colors.  The boys learned from one of our horticulturalist neighbors that they're called cosmos.  So they're constantly talking about them.

 Evan took this picture and I think it's great!   He actually took the one above this one, and the one below too.  You see what I mean, he's obsessed!

Anyway, I hope you like our yard, we sure do!  Next year, I'm going to tackle the back yard and my goal is to plant a garden.  Maybe I'll be as successful as Jess and Cole with their green monster!  But I'll let her blog about that!