Our vow to not be THOSE neighbors...

Tim and I are still learning when it comes to landscape and yard work. It is especially difficult when we have a shady lot with lots of trees. But that is no excuse for the mess we have put off attending to.

The first shot is the front of the yard when we started to tackle the weeds. The second shot is our raised bed that we built for the veggie garden of 2011. Needless to say it was hurting.We came up with a game plan. The back raised beds needed something so we decided to start a partially shaded garden to add some color to the back. The front garden beds needed a lot of weeding, edging and mulching. So while I headed off to home depot (in my opinion a better garden center than Lowes) Tim headed to get some mulch.

Luckily our township offers free mulch/compost. Its great for saving money. They dump a ton of it in various parks throughout the township. We discovered it last year but a little late in the game. This time we were not going to miss it. So while I went shopping, Tim went to get the first round of mulch.

At home depot, I gathered some dwarf rhododendrons and a few annuals for the bed. When I got back I ripped out the few massive weeds in the bed and got to work. Check out this massive weed!

I dug all the holes and then planted and viola. A shady garden.

Here is another angle.



A much better improvement than this.

But what about the front. Well Tim and I got to work weeding, edging and mulching. I started making trips to the mulch pile with him and we ended up going 4 times (each time filling 2 trashcans). That is a lot of money saved. But enough talk. Let's see some shots.

BEFORE

AFTER

How about a wider angle shot?

So our mission to not be "those neighbors" is one step closer. This took a long time to do but mostly because we neglected weeding and stopped to talk to our neighbors once in awhile. Now if we can only tackle that grass (or lack thereof).

Anyone else doing some work on their yards?