Local Beautification Project Complete After Seven Years

That sounds nice and official, doesn't it?


See, we have lived in our house for seven years now and have never really done anything with our front yard other than let the HOA people plant a tree in it.

We have talked about putting in a flower bed several times but just never got around to it. It didn't really bother me much, but Secret Agent Man hated our boring front yard. So this year we finally bit the proverbial bullet and got it done.

We started by digging out the area we thought we wanted to put it - right in front of our porch.

This was easier said then done (although, what isn't, right?) The grass had seven long years to root, plus the ground is mostly clay instead of dirt. Fun fun fun!
Not.

We had a pallet of landscaping bricks dropped off in front of the house and started hauling them over one at a time to place around out dug out area. We leveled and dug, leveled and dug. Then we discovered we were going to have to dig out the end more because, as you can see, there is a wee bit of a slant. We stopped where we were and started in again the next day because, frankly, I was tired of playing in the dirt.
But after much trial and error we finally figured it out.

(Secret Agent Man maintaining his secret identity)

I was so proud when we got that done, and it actually looks half-way professional! Maybe we should quit our jobs and become landscapers?
Or not.

Anyway, we had to wait a couple days after that because it rained and rained and rained... And just when we thought we were going to have to build an ark next, it stopped for a couple hours, so we ran to a local nursery and bought a bunch of plants. Of course it rained all the rest of the day, but the next day we were able to get out and plant stuff.

All in all, I think it turned out quite nice. I'm sure we overcrowded the bed, but so what? We can deal with it as it spreads. What a project though! I have new respect for people who do this stuff on a daily basis.

Next up - the light post area at the curb! Yee haw!

So, what have you all been up to?