Yard Crashers!

Pops getting started on clearing out all the clutter

My family has a history of seeking peace and solace in their yard work and gardening.  My great Uncle Roger had a meticulously manicured lawn, my father spends hours on end making improvements to his yard, and my grandmother has found great happiness in the seasonal blooms from her garden.   I'm not sure I've had the opportunity to embrace that affinity, just yet....until last weekend!

40 bags of mulch later!

We had my dad in town for a long weekend to help out with some of the projects we had outstanding from the move.  Once all of the indoor projects were tackled though, my dad and I took on our front yard.  When we bought the house, and up until just a few weeks ago, the evidence of a very long, and cold winter was being displayed by the twigs and bare trees that surrounded our home.  It's been a pleasure to see what is coming up and blooming now that spring is in full swing!  However, what we've also noticed, now that things are starting to fill in, is how absolutely overgrown our yard is now.  It was in dire need of a little tidying.

Yeah, he wasn't much help...

And that's where Pops comes in!  We've made several trips to Home Depot, but none as serious as this one.  We wheeled in the BIG cart to stock up on 20 bags of mulch, and every outdoor tool you could think of ever needing...rakes, hand saws, sheers, gardening gloves, you name it!  We returned home to use each and every one of these tools to cut out all of the excess and clear out the mess of weeds and ivy that had taken over the house and our front yard.  We'd return to Home Depot later to DOUBLE (yes, DOUBLE) our mulch supply, because 20 bags was only sufficient for the left side of our yard!


We didn't need to plant anything new - we have willows, hydrangeas, crocuses, daffodils, and azaleas coming in with the rest of the perennials, and they look glorious.  All we needed to do was tidy it up, lay down some mulch, fertilize our grass a bit, and give everything a nice good watering.  It took us about 6 or 7 hours in total, and I was only useful when it came to raking/sweeping up the debris since I couldn't exactly bend down in the dirt with my Pops, but the end results were amazing.  The yard work I did with my dad was among the most rewarding of any home project we've done since moving to the house.

It might be easier to hire a gardener - and it would definitely save some time to have someone else do the work.  But after spending the 6 hours in my front yard with my dad, it made so much sense to me why he spent every Saturday of my life outside.  A day in the yard brings you the best kind of instant gratification - the "Hey everyone... come and see how good my yard looks" kind of instant gratification.  It gives you the best kind of exhaustion too - the "I worked really hard on something really rewarding to be this tired" kind of exhaustion.

I said at the beginning of this year that 2015 was going to be all about cutting the clutter, and why wouldn't that apply to our yard???  Even in my heavily pregnant state, it felt so good to get out in the yard and make outdoor renovations to my new home.  Mike was away for the weekend on a little man-cation, but he came home to a complete yard flip.  We now have an arsenal of yard tools, and an wealth of knowledge in my dad's expertise.  I can't wait to see what we can do to the rest of the yard!  AND, we can't wait to share our progress with you all!