Yard projects

7 AM to 7 PM. All day spent in the yard. That's what was in store for us last Saturday.

Luckily, we we didn't have to go at it alone. I convinced my parents to come down and help start some of the yard projects that I wanted to get underway this year. My mom and dad are awesome at that kind of thing and I just knew I wouldn't dare tackle it without their help. With my dad's input, what started out as a project to just plant flowers and a few trees (literally!), turned into ripping out bushes, buying landscape timber, renting a sod cutter, and buying cement pavers for a new patio. Yikes.

But it's turning out really nice. Of course, I have a long way to go to make it look just like I want, but it's a start. A really great start actually. I didn't want to even go in my backyard before, so at least now I look forward to going out there and watering flowers and puttering around a bit.

Here's Payton and Logan spending time in the shade tent that I bought for Seven Peaks this year. Might as well break it in somehow.

Here's my Flowering Pear tree being planted by my mom and dad.

Now, I realize that these before and after pics aren't as dramatic as the ones you see on HGTV....but they'll have to do. This is the patio before.....

And this is the patio after. Still under construction. This is the main project that we needed the sod cutter for. We have a big stack of cement pavers that you can see in the corner of the pic that we'll be putting down so we can have a bigger area to put a table and chairs. This was my dad's idea because I called a couple people to find out how much it would cost to pour another cement pad. $800 bucks? What?!? No thanks.
Here's the back fence view before....

And back fence view after. Again, my dad's idea. We used the sod we cut from the patio area and created one large flower bed in the center of the fence. Another fun part of this project, I was "informed" that I HAVE to learn all the names of the things I planted. Really, I was going to do that anyway, but my dad created a diagram and legend for my flower beds. Not joking. I have all the names written down and I'll be studying them daily. So if you come over, you might have to play along and endure listening to me ramble off all the names of what I've got in my flower beds.Side fence before....

Side fence after. Puuurrrty!

And this is a shot across my yard showing the back fence and my new tree. I'm going to be planting one more tree in the corner area of the fence that you can see in this pic. I'm just waiting til I find the right one.

Thanks again mom and dad! There will be more yard project pics to come. The season is young and I've got lots to do. Wish me luck!