Yard Work Weekend

A few weekends ago, we spent the entire weekend doing yard work.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Saturday morning Phil mowed the yard and edged while I pulled grass and weeds from the flower beds. He helped me weed when he finished and that afternoon his mom came by to teach us the best way to do our annual cutting back of our plants in the beds so that they would not remain the overgrown craziness that had been there previously. She also taught us how to properly prune our Crepe Myrtles for optimal tree shape. We significantly cut back all of the rose bushes in our beds and we planted some Red Tip Photinas behind them, pulling out the Oak Leaf Hydrangeas that were previously behind the roses but never bloomed because they get too much sun there. We moved them to the side of the house where it is more shady so we'll see how they do in their new location. On Sunday we continued planting and laid 2 layers of mulch- the mulch that we had ordered originally for the beds, and then a layer of the red mulch over the top. We love the way the red mulch looks against the colors of our house. We also planted the yellow and orange flowers in the front for some extra color for the spring. We are happy with the end result. It was even worth all the blisters and cuts on my hands that resulted from the hard work! We are so glad this type of hard yard work only is required once a year. Now if only we can get some good rain (not on the weekdends though!) so that the grass our yard will start coming back green. That would really complete the look!