Weekend Project Update: Front Yard Complete!!

Alrighty so this past weekend I finally finished up the front yard! When my mom & sister were here, we planted the first batch of orange & yellow marigolds and red & purple verbanas. This past weekend I went back for more to fill in the rest of the bed.

First round planted with Mom & Taylor

Whole bed filled in! And yes, the grass needs cutting...

I also bought a large pot to sort of anchor the back corner of the bed while they were here, and it took my awhile to decide what to put in it, but I found a super full hanging basket of petunias at Ellis Pottery (local place were I like to buy all my flowers - same prices but better quality than Lowes/Home Depot!) so I decided to go with that. And then I bought these small pots of purple flowers (don't remember the name right now...) to put next to the big pot so it wouldn't look too large and out of place.

And then the last thing was that I kind of went crazy and decided to dig out a new flower bed around my crepe myrtle tree in the front yard. Since my front yard kind of slopes uphill, all these pretty little flowers aren't super visible from the street, so I thought it might be nice to have something else further forward in the yard.

View from the street... those flowers are far away!

At first I thought I'd test out using a shovel to dig up the area, but that quickly failed. So I headed over to Lowes thinking I would buy a hoe, but instead realized there was a much better tool for the job: a pick axe! So I bought one similar to the one below, but a 2.5lb version, which was a little easier for me to handle.

from www.lowes.com

And then I went to town. Before I went to Lowes I also had attempted to clear the area a little bit with rake, hoping that might making it easier to break up with the shovel (which totally did not help) and in doing so I established a nice little border marking the area I wanted to dig up. 

And then I got to work... wish I had a picture of me wielding the pick axe (or technically the 'mattock pick') but I was a woman on a mission. Sam had gone out for a run and I think he was a little scared of me when he came down the street and I was tearing up the front yard with an axe. :) In the end I was left with a nice little flower bed and a lot of pulled up grass scattered around the lawn:

I decided to plant begonias here because I wanted to get some more pink in to tie things together. I'm not sure I accomplished that, since the whole front yard is just a giant mismash of colors now, but it makes me happy so whatever.

In the end, I wish I had made the bed around the tree bigger, but I've been sore the past two days from digging it up so it is probably for the best. And it started raining as I was finishing up, so I'm glad I didn't try to do too much more. Maybe I'll dig it out a little further next year?

But I am now happy to call the front yard complete - it has definitely come along way from the beginning of this year! Check out the first two front yard progress posts here and here. 

Before - I don't have a good wide shot, but it was a mess!

Very first steps - clearing the bed!

Nice and empty - that was a lot of hard work!

Bushes in!

Final product!!

Overall, I spent about $650, and I think that definitely saved me some money vs. having someone else plan and do the work. Almost $200 of that was flowers, which is a lot considering they are all going to die this year, but I'll try not to think about that! Over half was for the bushes, which are definitely an investment. They still need to fill in some for it all to really look good, but I know that will take time.

Who else has been up to lawn projects? It's that time of year. I have big plans forming in the back of my mind for in the backyard, but that'll all have to be next year. As far as projects go, I'll be trying to finish up some more around here (I need to get re-started on my Dude Get on that Already challenge!) and prepping for the major kitchen remodel I'm hoping to do this fall - I'm excited and nervous for sure!