I ain't gonna work no more, no more...

At least that's how I felt each night this past week.

The project?

Re-planting our front yard, front flower bed

and a part of one of our side yards.

Why?

Besides the fact that it was desperate for a make-over, I figure it's going to be harder for me to bend over, spend hours at a time on my knees or to navigate a shovel without going into labor. And since I'm not getting any smaller, any nimbler or more graceful, I figure now is the time to do it.

Since Jared had to bring home the bacon so I could spend the wad buying plants, fertilizer and compost at the nursery, the project was mainly mine though I was able to recruit helpers one of my days. It's so much easier to do it myself but they were so excited to help that I couldn't resist.

Here's the before:

During:

And after:

The front yard before:

I took some pictures beforehand to take to the nursery in the hopes that someone there could suggest a ground cover that would work with our partial sun, partial shade, hilly area with palm tree roots, gophers, foot traffic from two kids and a dog while still being drought tolerant, super sturdy, low maintenance and green. Is that so hard to ask?

During:

We had two days of rain (wahoo!) last week so I took advantage of the soft dirt and spent a day digging up holes in preparation of whatever we'd be planting. (I put Chase to work already. That extra weight on the shovel helped.)

(Can you tell the palm trees shadows aren't the only ones in these pictures??

Quincy is my "white shadow" and goes every where I go.)

After:

The GOOD news: after "only" 2 trips to the nursery and hours of walking through the aisles deliberating back and forth between species of plants I can't even pronounce while texting/sending pics to Jared at work during his lunch and shoveling Austin fruit snacks my the mouthfuls to keep him happy, I decided on a ground cover that should do the job (I hope!)

The BAD news: the landscaper told me each plant would only need to be planted in 2 inch by 2 inch holes. Meaning the literally 100+ holes I dug at least a foot deep and a deep wide were not only totally unnecessary but even more work to fill in. Hence Saturday and Monday spent all day on the shovel and Tuesday and Wednesday spent ALL day on my knees.

It may not look like much now but hopefully in the somewhat near future it will look like more than well groomed dirt. I am so dang proud of my 150 of little baby plants and even though each night this week Jared shook his head at me as barely I hobbled from room to room and kept falling asleep before 9, it was something I actually enjoyed doing each day (ahem!-for the most part).

Here's our little side yard that has been a little waste land since we moved here. Figured I should buy a flat and plop some plants in here too while I was at it. Grow little vinca majors, grow!

My little soldiers standing at the curb.

I feel like I should bake some cookies or brownies for the poor men who have to dispose of all of our green waste each week. I can't tell you how satisfying (and such a relief!) it is when I come out to a pile of empty garbage cans Thursday morning.

It's been SO much work but SO much fun to work on a project from start to finish (ha! as if it's finished and won't need constant care but I'll worry about that tomorrow). I felt like my mom as I dug and hauled and planted and that's always a rewarding feeling (my mom can do ANYTHING, seriously). Jared's been so great asking me all about it when he comes home and check it out before each work in the morning (it's too dark now by the time he comes home to see anything-thank you time change. grrr.)

So dear Mother Nature, bring on the rainstorms to help all my little plants grow. But maybe not TOO much like last fall when you flooded all my newly planted grass seed in the backyard.