A work in progress....Literally

I don't know where to begin.  Do are start off by thanking my wonderful sister and family for all of their hard work?  Or by showing how far our yard has come?  The past two weeks have flown by, with plenty of progress.  We could never have done as much work that has been done this month without the help of my sister Lynette, and her husband Bruce.  And definitely not to exclude her children, Mike, David, Zach, and Jake.  Dan I am sure would also be there to help, if he weren't serving an LDS mission right now.  And Samantha....had girl things going on.;)  Top picture....we can't forget, was the starting pic a few weeks ago.  

These are our finished grow boxes.  We kept a spot in the top right corner for our strawberries and rhubarb.  Now we need some compost and peat moss and hopefully we can grow stuff from these wonderful boxes. 

While the men were in back working on the garden, Lynette and I (mostly Lynette) were cleaning up the front yard. Top pick was last week, bottom pic was today after Lynette "fluffed" my soil.  We are going to plant a weeping cherry right in the middle. 

Tristan sat inside watching cartoons most of the time.  But Ashton was out digging up weeds and worms.  He loved talking to his Aunt about all the things he sees and what he can do to help. That kid can talk.

Lynette cut down all my rose bushes, and some others that were over grown.  We are going to dig these out, and plant a maple tree in its place.

A  cleaned up front yard. 

We are going to dig up this apple tree and replant it at the pic below.  And in the apple trees place, we are going to plant a white pine. 

This rose bush will be removed soon.  It was too much of an annoyance last year.  Today was a very productive day.  Still lots to be done but it feels so great to be making progress.  Thank you so much Adams family!

Making Progress!

Despite the unpredictable weather these past few weeks, Das and I have made quite some progress on our yard.  Last year was so hard for us, since we moved in late April and the weeds had already started to sprout.  And on  top of that, I was pregnant.  But we set out some goals, and the last few Saturdays, we have been able to get out and get to work.  We have a hundred or more Irises in our yard, so we dug some up last fall and kept the bulbs in a bag.  I wasn't sure they would survive, but when I pulled them out, they were already sprouting.  My cute neighbor boy had dug some holes for me while Das was out of town, and then I broke up the bulbs and re-planted them.  Here are the  before and after pics.

This next fall I will be breaking up a lot more of my bulbs if anyone is interested in taking some.  They are beautiful! 

Here I felt we had a few spaces that could be filled.  So in the spot where Das and I are putting our raised garden there were a few bushes that Das dug up and replanted in between these. 

This tree was smack in the middle of our backyard and would have been an issue with our raised gardens. 

So Das dug it up, (all though they say only to replant stuff in the fall) and replanted it.  I am sure it will survive, cuz this weather has been so unpredictable.  It sure gave him a work out though trying to get it out.  I better fill the hole in before the boys burry each other in it. 

This is the Southwest corner of our house.  My brother in law Bruce thought it should be re-planted here. 

I think it looks fantastic.  It will give perfect shade when it gets bigger. 

This is the Northeast corner of our house.  Up top are strawberries and ruhbarb.  To the right of them are are a bunch of raspberry bushes.  Das pulled that bush out.....which was dead, and I started weeding to prepare for our grow boxes. 

So this is the beginning of our boxes.  My brother in law Bruce had some grow boxes at his work and my cool nephew David brought them over.  And then on Saturday my amazing sister Lynette and her husband Bruce and their son Zach came to help us put them together.  We plan on moving these back towards the fence a couple feet and then adding two more boxes on each side. 

Lynette has a green thumb.  I asked her if she would come take a look at our rose bushes.  Who knows how old these bushes are or when the last time they were pruned. 

I am so lucky to have such a wonderful sister who has devoted so much time to help us get our yard together. 

While Lynette was pruning our rose bushes, I decided to weed a little. 

It always amazes me how fast flowers sprout and how they can survive the cold.  I am so excited to see how our yard will look in a couple of months and in a couple of years. 

We love working in our yard!  It's less anxiety this year (not pregnant) and we can enjoy it more than last year.  We still have lots of work to be done, but one step at a time.