Front yard complete

It's been baby steps with our yard, but this last month we made a lot of progress. 

Luckily our lawn was put in last fall after we moved in by the builder so we didn't have to worry about that. The next project was flowerbeds and trees. We went to a great nursery in Urbana and spent WAY too much on plants, but I am really happy with the way it turned out. Some of what we bought also included three fruit trees for the backyard. We got a peach, a fuji apple, and a pink lady apple. The peach tree already has little peaches on it, so that will be exciting. They also seemed way cheaper than fruit trees we have bought in Utah. I think there is less demand for them here. 

I at least had the foresight to get starts from our neighbors when they were offering them last fall, so those were great fillers, they came in great, and saved us from buying more. I also planted tulips and daffodils in November last year (because they were on clearance and it was still so warm). They took a long time to come up, I think I either planted them too deep or it was just too shady for them, but when they did come up they looked amazing. Unfortunately I didn't really get a picture of them in full bloom and now the rain/wind has pretty much destroyed them. I got lots of compliments on them and was glad that I planted them.

I also put edging along all of the flowerbeds, which was quite the job. I had been putting it off for a while because I knew it would be. 

Gracie and Benny helped me plant some annuals around the perennials that we bought and in some pots by the garage door (had to have my red begonias, they are my favorite).

Benny thought the containers were the greatest things ever. They made the best noises.

Gracie was outside all day long. She was out with daddy in the morning and with mommy in the afternoon. I noticed she was getting a little burned but I didn't have any sunscreen to put on her, so I made her wear one of my big hats. But it must have been too late. I was sad when we came in and I saw THIS...

She didn't complain and it went away fast, but the next day at church I made her wear a longer sleeve dress to cover up mommy and daddy's mistake. Poor girl. 

Another big project this month was the side driveway. When we moved here we discovered that we needed another car since Shad wouldn't be able to drive his work car to church meetings and such, and we needed a place to put it. This is when we really thought we should have found a house with a 3 car garage. But, we decided that the side of the house worked just fine. We put gravel in and called it good. Then, we received an email from the HOA telling us that was against code and it had to be paved....so we left it all winter as rocks and then dug it all out this spring to put in cement.

I agree that it does look nicer, but it definitely wasn't cheaper than the gravel. Shad was smart and rented a skidster to dig it out for the cement. He said that was the best $125 he ever spent. Shad did his own forms, but we had the professionals come and do the cement. That was also a great move as they ended up having to wheelbarrow the entire thing from the truck so they wouldn't crack the existing driveway. They did a great job at finishing it and making it look nice too. 

 We put our names in the cement, so I guess this house is officially ours.