The Yard - Before

I think I mentioned last year when we bought the house that I am NOT a gardner at all. I know nothing about plants and the few that I've tried to plant inside in pots and outside I've managed to kill :o( So there was no way that I was going to take on the challenge of making the yard look nice on my own. I actually attempted to plant a few things last year and I did not enjoy it but then you have my neighbor who's out there all summer and see's it as a stress reliever. I think I got more stressed, haa, haa.

Anyway, last year we did the kitchen and this year we'll focus on the yards. The backyard is going to be done in stages because I"m sure it won't be cheap so we'll take it a little bit at a time. The front yard is much smaller and we aren't putting too much out there so hired a gardner and he started last weekend. We initially hired him to clean out the weeds in both the back and the front but then he told me if I just went and picked up all the plants at Home Depot he'd put them in the ground for us. YAY!!! They finished doing the work last night and we love it. It makes our house look so much prettier. The challenge now will be not to kill the plants but I think I can handle watering. I'm so happy with the way it looks that that's motiviation enough to get me out there with the hose.

Here is what it looked like before and later today I'll take pictures of the after.