Flower Bed Facelift

Our two flower beds in the front yard have been in major need of some TLC. Sadly, they have been neglected for a while. We want to do so much more in them, but for now we just gave them a little clean up and facelift. Hopefully next spring we can do some serious improvements in them. Since it's so late in the spring season and almost summer, we decided not to plant anything in the flower beds, but to spruce them up in other ways for the time being.

While John was mowing on Saturday, I spent time pulling up the weeds and grass that had grown up into the mulch and existing bushes. Wow - that's a job! I'd pull up a few weeds or a bunch of grass and tons more would appear - it seemed to never end. I wasn't able to get it all, but I did the best I could. After that I added about 3-4 bags of fresh mulch to each flower bed. Then I added some solar lights, hanging baskets and a piece of yard decor. I also planted a pot of marigolds for the walkway up to the front door.

Here is a picture of the smaller flower bed before...

After a few small improvements...Ahhhh - much better! It's not a drastic change, but anything is better than it was.

Here is the larger flower bed before (which wasn't quite as bad)... After...
Here are a few other pictures of the front...

As I worked in the flower beds, John was mowin' and blowin'!
While I was snapping pictures, I took a few of the backyard also. As with everything, we have a few projects we still want to do back here, but we are making progress from when we first moved in. When we bought the house, there was a tiny slab of concrete out the back door and no patio cover. In the past four years, we've been able to extend and cover the patio and add gutters - such a blessing! You'll spot a basket of Calvin's toys, but he prefers to just roll around in the grass and soak up the sun. Speaking of Calvin, on the fence there is a yellow diamond sign that says "Beagle Crossing". On the back porch, the "Ussery Ave" sign we got while in vacation in New Orleans a 5 years ago and the "Porch Sweet Porch" sign I bought on clearance at Kirklands. My Mom just bought us a really cute and brightly colored floral tablecloth that we can put over the table when we eat, play games or whatever else we use the table for outside.

It was SO hot outside while we were working. We were outside by 9am and it was already in the 90s - gotta love the south! After we were done and cleaned up, we both crashed for two hours (which I never do). I guess the heat just took it out of us. It felt really good to have a nice long nap and then we went out on a date night. It was a fun and productive Saturday!

Until we meet again...
Riley