around the house lately. . .

The other day my dad wanted to know what I've been up to. Well, Dad, here you go. 

This summer we've been working on the landscaping quite a bit. Here's our front yard as we first saw it in February of 2011. Right in the front we have these two big evergreen holly trees. They provide a lot of privacy. Notice also that there's an over-abundance of river rock.

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More rock. Some lilacs (which really need to be moved to a sunnier spot because the trees cover most of them up), a Japanese maple tree, some irises, and more rock.

An aging planter box with some spring bulbs and lilies, and a window box with lots of potential.

Fast forward to August 25th when we got the keys. Here's the view out the master bedroom window. . . see how the lilacs get shrouded by the trees? 

The traditional we just bought a house and here's the sold sign to prove it picture. Notice the wild and crazy looking lilies in the falling apart planter box. Don't forget about the rock. So. much. rock.

 And another view. There's a little water feature in front of the living room window that you can't really see.

Have you noticed a theme here? The river rock goes on forever. It's even by the mailbox. Oh my gosh. I was so sick of river rock. Such a pain in the behind. It's so hard to weed and it just looks so blah.

Well, thanks to my strappingly strong and handsome husband and the kind folks who use Craig's List that came and scooped it up for free and took it to their homes for some odd reason, a lot of that river rock is outta here!!! Well, some of it is now in the garden between the raised beds. We've changed some things around, planted some new stuff, and got a truckload of dark hemlock bark dust delivered. Take a look at it today. . .

We haven't had much rain the last two months, so the grass is looking pretty dead, some of the flowers are passed their blooming days, the irises need to be trimmed back, the window box needs some sprucing up, but it looks so much better to not have all that rock. The mums in the front are just getting ready to bloom and the daisies are still going strong.

Kind of hard to see, but in the corner behind the hummingbird feeder are two new hydrangeas. Babies for now, but they'll grow.

There's still lots of room to plant more things in the future, and I can't wait to see the bulbs come up in the spring. They're all over the place now. The rocks by the mailbox are gone and I moved two of the daylilies over there.

 Here you can see where there's still some rock. We haven't gotten rid of all of it. Yet.

To me it seems like everything just stands out greener and brighter. I'm in love with my dark hemlock bark dust. When in doubt, go dark.