Front Yard Overhaul

**This post might only be enjoyed by family members, myself and Rusty**

Since Rusty and I moved into our house 14 months ago, we have heard many stories about it's history.  We have always known that a young couple bought this house new and lived here.  As we get to know our neighbors, more and more secrets come out!  One neighbor told us that they liked to party and would sit on the porch playing a guitar and singing until 3 a.m.  Another neighbor told us that their yard was perfectly landscaped.  Just the other day, I learned that after they lost the house (quote, "They liked to party more than they liked to pay their mortgage."), they snuck back in the middle of the night to dig up all of their plants!


BOO for us!


By piecing together all of the different stories and time lines, I am pretty sure that our raped property sat vacant for about 2 years.  Add the year we have lived here, and it has been in a sad state for 3 years...


Since Rusty and I are so competitive (as a team, not with each other....unless you ask him.  He swears we will never play racquetball against each other again as it is terrible for our marriage), we just couldn't bare to let the neighbors' yards outshine ours.


Project "I GUESS WE'RE GROWN UPS NOW, SO LET'S DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS YARD" was born!


Rusty worked the last two weeks of school in the yard.  I would help out in the evenings and weekends, but he did all of the grunt work!  Here are before and afters of some parts of our yard.

Front of House BEFORE

Front of House AFTER

Here, we transplanted one Japanese Maple for another, added flower boxes and ferns to the porch, planted an herb garden and put in some flowers to fill out the space that we mulched and put a border around.  We also added some cute house numbers on one of the columns, but I cropped that out so none of you will stalk me in real life, lol!

Front Island BEFORE

Front Island AFTER

Here, we left the original plants and tree and mulched and added the border. Of course, we had some major set backs....

Side of House BEFORE

Rusty added cross tie planters with lots of hydrangeas. 

He dug up several plants that the previous owners planted and didn't dig up in the middle of the night and raked and tilled the yard.

Side Yard BEFORE

Side Yard DURING

He planted Fescue seed in the side yard since it is pretty shaded and Bermuda sod wouldn't do that well. But the Fescue is a tall, skinny bladed Fescue that will blend perfectly with sod.

Front Side Yard BEFORE

He had to remove a tree that looked cancerous...

...plant a new maple (his favorite) and till the bare patch...

 ...and add a border around the new tree...

...mulch inside the border and lay the top soil for the sod.

He layed the sod and planted me some purple ground coverings that I was begging for.  Clearly, he worked hard!  Our yard is looking amazing.  I was scheduled to take after shots of the grass seed, sod and front of the house as a whole, but we.....FINALLY......had a huge thunderstorm, and I couldn't go outside.  Tomorrow, Rusty is cutting all of the grass, and I will post some new pictures.

Neighbors....be jealous.  We DOMINATE (no, I'm not competitive...)!!!