The Battle of the Yard

It was winter. The ground was covered in two feet of beautiful crisp white snow. The outside of the home looked so darling. The inside was to die for. We fell in love with the house the minute we walked through the front door. We crunched some numbers, and made it happen. We moved in and the snow began to melt. The grass began to come back to life - and it looked lovely. Then tulips began to pop up all throughout the lawn and I began to realize that Grape Hyacinth was the queen of my yard - not me. Commence insane amounts of weeding.

As we explored a little more - we discovered lots of buried treasures. Stumps of old trees that had been covered by dirt and bark (5 to be exact - a couple of which once unearthed actually began to sprout new life - lucky me), old burnt doors that were living a second life as a make-shift retaining wall, railroad spikes and other old-metal-type-hardware scattered throughout the yard, an old ice skate blade that had been turned upside down and cemented next to the back door to make an incredible shoe scraper,flower beds housing nothing close to anything resembling flowers, beautifully maintained and manicured trees (I hope the sarcasm is actually physically dripping from this statement), a driveway you need a 4x4 to safely maneuver, and last but not least a tree cemented in to the patio (which I am sure can't be healthy for the root system).

So we got to work. We pulled weeds, dug out dead shrubs, cut down small trees, demolished a VERY scary row of rose bushes, pulled more weeds, ripped out two berms, got rid of rock dividers that are EVERYWHERE in the yard, dug dirt from one place and moved it to another, dug out giant yucca plants (only 10 more to go!), dug up sod from the backyard and moved it up front, reshaped the front flower beds, made lots of friends at Home Depot, trimmed a few trees (I think there are 10 giant mature trees on our lovely little lot), mowed and edged, and finally planted a few flowers of MY choice (take that Grape Hyacinth!).


The front yard and side yards now look respectable - the back is another story for another day - but we are trying. Good thing I enjoy yard work - because there is lots and lots and lots to be done. When three trees are removed from the backyard and the backhoe, excavator, and cement truck are here - I will again post about my yard. Until then, wish me luck.

-ONE MORE THING-

If we can avoid girls on mopeds that can't drive crashing into our bushes.....
we might have a chance.

Although a rare method of pruning - a highly effective one!