Yard Work & A Lot Of Sweat

This past weekend Dan & I got the home improvement bug & decided to work on our front yard; if you have ever been to our house you know that our yard is extremely small so we really didn’t think it would take too long....several hours later we were finished. Our plan was to plant, mulch, reshape & improve what we already had so we decided to start at Wal-Mart because lets face it, it’s usually cheaper. Plus my Mom recently bought some daisies from there & planted them on the side of their house & they looked great when we went up for the 4th of July; as soon as I saw them I knew I wanted the exact same ones. When we got to Wal-Mart we found their selection of daisies & were immediately disappointed – not in good shape at all. Since I couldn’t get a hold of my Mom to ask for advice, we decided to check out Lowe’s; they had a much better selection of plants, but no daisies. We bought our scalloped, cement dividers from there & also our mulch & top soil. We then went to Home Depot, but still no daisies. Dan had the idea of stopping at two nurseries not far from our house which were also a bust & totally expensive - I couldn’t believe how pricey they were.

On our way back to Wal-Mart I heard from my Mom who told me that the daisies she bought were in bad condition too, but after a week of being planted they were fine, so Dan & I bought 4 of them for the front yard. We also bought 5 Liriope to fill some of the empty space. By the time we got home with all of our purchases, it was about 96 degrees outside & I told Dan that I wanted to wear my bikini to work in the yard. He then said, “where do you think you are, West Virginia?” I instantly laughed & decided to compromise & wear my bikini top & a pair of shorts so I wouldn't embarrass him – I’ve been into tanning this summer because last summer I looked like an albino all year & I hated it (yes, I’ve been wearing my sun block for all of you worriers out there).

So before we could start on our project, we had to unload Dan’s truck – here’s a photo I took of all our purchases: And here are the before photos of our front yard:
It was very plain and didn't have a lot of love.

And here is what it looks like now!

“To the left, to the left” of our front door.
Dan & I decided the other day that we're going to buy another plant to fill in the gap between the other two - not sure what we're going to get though.
I loooove our Euonymus shrubs, which are the green & yellow plants, so much in fact that I found myself hugging them while waiting for Dan to dig holes for planting – he, of course, looked at me very strangely. I can't wait for them to grow bigger so I can shape them more. I'm also extremely excited about filling one of my vases with fresh daisies & having them in the house.
Us admiring our hard work: Lexi was a big help: As a reward we treated ourselves to some mexican food & drinks with friends: [I love this picture of Dan.]
After dinner we walked over to visit the ducks who thought we were bringing them food & started surrounding us: [Look at the one at Dan's 11:00 just staring me down. LOL!]
They quickly left once they realized that we didn't have any food - poor things they were probably starving: We are so very happy with our end result. In fact, since we have finished it Dan gets extremely excited to water the front yard & it’s now part of his daily routine in the evening.