The Annual "Before" And "After" Yard Work Post

Before I start this post I want to say thank you for all your thoughts and prayers. I had a job interview on Monday for a position I was quite excited about. It would have meant working from 8:30 - 4:30, Monday through Thursday in an office so it would have been a big change for our family. (I currently work ten to fifteen hours per work from home.) I found out a few days ago that I wasn't offered the position. I am sad but trying to look on the bright side. Thank you again for your support. Now on to cheerier (at least to me!) subjects.

This spring has been very rainy in our neck of the woods. So on any day that promises even the least amount of sun, and we have the time, we have been outside working on our yard. I'm so excited about how awesome our yard looks right now. It's not the neglected mess it's been some years. I'm hoping we can stay on top of it all summer. Ha!

Our behind the house bed, before. We needed to edge the bed, weed it, trim the rose bush, and plant some annuals.

I was trying not to go too crazy on annuals this year but once the weeds were cleared out, this bed had some empty spaces. But see how cleaned up it looks!

After Rachel and I made another trip to the garden centre, it looked a lot less empty. Those tall green things in the middle are daffodils so they will disappear soon.

As I said above, I was trying to keep my annual buying to a minimum. So the first go around, I only bought 48 plants. (One year I bought 102 and one year I bought 144, so keeping it to 48 was great! Ha!)

A few years ago, my mom and dad helped me totally revamp this space and it's become one of my favourite spots in our yard. (To look at, that is!)

I love planting all the pots for this area of the yard. But again, I decided it looked too empty.

So when Rachel and I picked up the additional plants, I created a few more planters and I think it looks much better now :)

When we moved into this house, there was a big hedge in our backyard. We eventually took it down -- you can read about those adventures here (this was when we thought we could do it ourselves. Ha!). After we hired professionals to remove the rest of it, we replanted the hedge. Okay, I replanted the hedge which you can read about here.

Anyways, a couple of the cedars had died, and one was sick, so Dave and the kids weeded and Dave trimmed the sick cedar. And I weeded around the tree and planted Sweet William. I'm only a little ticked that the rabbits have bitten off about 75% of those flowers. Grrrrr.

And then last week, Rachel and I also picked up two new cedars. Soon we will have a fuller grown, complete hedge. I hope...

The bed right by the clothesline is always the easiest to deal with because it just requires weeding and edging to look 1000% better.

Since it only takes me about half an hour to do, it gives me a huge sense of accomplishment! It also looks better when there's laundry hanging on the line in front of it. Ha!

I was able to get the front bed done too. I forgot to take a complete "before" picture, but the whole bed needed weeding (as evidenced on the right side above).

Last year, Janice gave me a couple of zinnias and I plunked them into this bed and loved them. They thrived and were so showy and pretty. So this year I bought a few smaller ones. I can't wait until they get big and covered with blooms.

Our friend also gave us a new sign. This sign was produced a few years ago, and given the current climate, I think it's still appropriate to be welcoming to everyone, no matter what.

One thing which has made the yard work feel much easier, and go a lot faster, is that the kids are really helpful, especially Rachel. When all four of us go out and work for two hours, we get seven hours of work done. (I subtracted an hour for Sam's complaining and delaying! Ha!). It's amazing!

This is just a random picture of Rachel and I after we had biked to our local garden centre with twenty more plants. For those keeping track, that's only 68 plants this year which might be a record for the lowest number of plants I've ever bought. And no, I'm not counting the 24 pansies I bought for our window boxes in April. Ha!

Our garage bed has always been my nemesis. I've been thrilled with it maybe once (or twice) in the almost six years that we've lived here. So last Sunday, I woke up determined to tackle it. It took two hours but...

... I am thrilled with the end results. Yay!!! Now if only I can stay on top of it this summer. We shall see...

And if the garage bed has been my nemesis, the back corner is Dave's. Again, he was able to work on it for a couple of hours and now...

...it's maybe one-third to one-half done. Womp womp. This is how it always goes but Dave was really happy with his progress. As was I!

The last bed is the one at the front of our house where we never go. Seriously, I only see this bed when I mow the front lawn. Woot. I've never been particularly happy with it but last year I found a new vision for it.

It's weeded, the hydrangeas are trimmed back, and seven impatiens are filling the empty space. Now I can basically ignore it all summer. Yay!

So if anyone stuck around until the end, I'm now done. I love doing all this yard work every year and sitting and enjoying the fruits of our labours. Working on our yard gives me so much energy and makes me so happy!

Do you thrive on yard work? Do you have a blog post showing your yard? Let me know!