Transformation!

These pictures are long due but the process of our landscaping projects took along time. This spring we decided that we were going to do some landscaping in our backyard and change some things in the front yard. At the beginning, we thought that we may have bit off more than we could chew but now that it is over we are so glad that we did it all! We will admit that we are rather crazy. We started the process back in April. Here is a list of the things that we did:
1. created flower beds in the backyard.
2. created a side bed where there were rocks before.
3. took all the rocks out and transplanted them in our side area by the garage
4. pulled out the bushes in our front bed and started over.
5. We had 10 yards of dirt delivered
6. 5 yards of bark mulch delivered
7. bought memberships at Canor Nursery and Cedar Rim Nursery.

Before: This was taken in the fall 2009.

After: This is how it looks now! Kind of hard to see the beds at the front of the house as the big Japanese Maple overtakes the space. It is an absolutely beautiful tree but it will need to be cut back soon.

After: this was all rocks before.....it would be a great place to park a camp trailer but since we don't have one we decided it would like nicer if we created a flowerbed.

After: The bushes that were here before were large and overgrown. There were only three bushes in the front here and you couldn't see the window. We decided we wanted to go with low to the ground plants. I am very happy with out it turned out.

Before: this was before we took the fence down and put up a new one. The old fence was so rotted that Jamie was able to pull large pieces down. It was definitely time for the fence to come down.

Before: This shows the backyard after we put up the new fence! The new fence made the the space seem so much bigger. It was quite the difference.

After: Here's part of a bed that goes the length of the back of the fence. Jamie did an amazing job in creating this flower bed. It has been so fun to watch the transformation of this backyard.

Jamie and I went to Cedar Rim Nursery after we created the back and side (out front) beds and picked plants. I was not really looking forward to it honesty. We don't always like the same thing or see the same idea's of the other so I knew that there would mostly likely be some disagreements. At the end, we were laughing and actually enjoyed the time together. It was quite fun....

We have realized that through this process we are learning to enjoy gardening and we have become rather obsessive over the weeds. Every time I see a weed I just want to pull it because it does NOT belong in my yard....especially after my man worked so hard to create everything!

We decided to create this bed because there is a staircase leading down under the porch and we didn't want kids to fall. So far, the kids stay away from the edge and I think it turned out pretty good. Don't ask me all the names of the plants because I can't really remember. I have kept all of the tags from the plants to be able to look back if we need to make any changes.
The bark mulch makes the whole thing look so much better and complete. We spent this past Wednesday afternoon/evening shoveling and spreading 5 yards of bark mulch. We both didn't think that we would actually finish the whole thing in one night but we did and we were so happy we did. Having the project done feels so good. We can now just go in the backyard and play with the kids without always seeing what needs to be done. The hope with the bark mulch is that this will keep the weeding down as well. Jamie and I laughed last night when we both said that both of our parents were going to laugh when they see what we have done because we both hated yard work growing up. I hated weeding my mother's flowerbeds and I always remembered her say that I needed to get use to it because I would be doing it at my own place some day. Of course, I would roll my eyes behind her back and say (under my breath) " No way" but here I am.....eating my words ;) Thanks Mom! You can now say, "I told you so"