Yard Work

The Great Home Spruce-up began a couple weekends ago.  We began with -- what else?  Curb Appeal.  Our front yard had been an embarrassment for quite a while, and since It's Spring! It's Spring! we felt like playing outside all day.

We started by clearing the weeds around the baby rosebushes (which I forgot to prune over the winter) and gave them a fresh layer of pretty red mulch. The girls were a great help.  They still like doing it, while I get itchy just thinking about it.

making use of the free labor

bing!  Mr. Pickles has since powerwashed the steps, and now they shine like alabaster

We've also given up on half our lawn.  Between the shade from the tree and the kids' playing, it was doomed.  So we got a brick border to outline a new edge, much closer to the sidewalk.

letting Dad do the grunt work

Some family members helped by not helping.

everyone was reveling in being outside!

We've got big plans for the grass, too -- basically ripping it up and starting over.  But for now it's a little scruffy.
 

rescuing a stray earthworm

As for the rest of the ex-lawn, we removed the rotting wood border and extended the garden, adding more hostas and liriope, which possess the virtues of being shade-tolerant and pretty AND hard to kill.  Win-win-win!  We filled the rest of the area with mulch.  Everyone wanted to help with that part.

whee!  dirt is fun!

Well, everyone except Daniel.  He took it upon himself to entertain the baby.

Apparently he's pretty hilarious.

this is Andy laughing his little guts out -- he's an encouraging audience

When we were done, Katie decorated the mulch with grass she had cut using her craft scissors.

bing!

We were very pleased with the results -- it looks wayyy less ghetto now!  And we had such a good time all working together, too.

even the ants had a good day -- peanut butter and honey, yum yum!

Next task is removing the stunted azalea.  Hopefully we'll get to that very soon, so we can get a picture while everything is in bloom and gorgeous.