like a good neighbor, their dog is there

What a day it's been so far! It feels like it should be dark already because Matt and I have been up since a little before 9 a.m. That's a rare thing for us!

And there's only one good reason to ever wake up early: FOOD!

We woke up at the crack of dawn (or something like that) for some tasty pancakes and sausage at Applebee's to support a fundraiser for the children's department at New Hope Baptist Church where we've been attending. It was lots of fun with good food and good people!

After our bellies were ready to explode, we headed over to Wal-Mart to pick up the smallest Smithfield ham we could find for our little Easter dinner next week. My family and I always eat with our extended family at my grandmother's house on Easter, and this will be the first year I'll miss that. Man, there's nothing like my grandmother's potato salad! Matt won't touch most things with the word "salad" in the name, except for an actual salad, so I don't ever make anything like that.

That's the negative thing about living away from your family - holidays are no longer the same. Our families both live four to five hours away from us but in opposite directions. It would be cool to have a private jet and easily travel whenever we'd like, but a jet isn't exactly in our budget right now (maybe next year).

Anyway, so when we got back home, Matt was really dreading the work I had planned out for him in our garden-to-be. I guess Matt's getting a taste of what a "honey-do list" really is! Like I said in a previous post, the poor guy doesn't like physical labor. When my parents were in town, I dug up the dirt in a section of the backyard for the future garden. The ground was still wet, so my dad said to let everything dry out before we broke up the chunks of dirt. That was of course music to Matt's musical ears.

Matt's been singing his excuse song ("The dirt needs to dry out more") all week, but through the huffs and puffs and sighs, he finally agreed to get started! He got the mattock out and was working so hard! For five minutes. Then I felt sorry for his worn out looking face and took over for a bit. We took turns until all the big chunks of clay mud were busted up. We added some garden soil with the help of the neighbor's dog (thanks for the extra fertilizer, buddy).

Now it's ready for plants and seeds. We'll see what happens. If all else fails, I'll turn it into a flower bed.

Here's Matt in action:



And here's me adding some Tennessee flare to it (barefoot style!):



Can you believe I got two blisters on my hand from that? I don't know how real gardeners do this stuff! Notice the neighbor's grass behind me. So pretty and green. We're trying to grow anything - green or not in the backyard. That's what all the hay is for.

This was taken after we added all the bags of garden soil. Matt's holding the rake, but I did all the raking. Hey, I have to make him look good, right?



Like I said, the neighbor's dog helped too.



And she apparently couldn't remember where she lived when we were finished.



And now my hard working husband's work at home is done. He's probably relieved to now be at his desk job. I tease him a lot on this blog, but he really is a good helpmate! Life wouldn't be so awesome without him. I am totally blessed!

Don't tell Matt, but I'm relieved the digging is over with too!

home sweet home

Time for some before and after photos from the results of the yard work. The green thumb is going strong, but that's always the case with new plants. Ask me in a few months, and things may have gone from green to brown.

Unless you're willing to pay extra for "upgraded" landscaping, everyone knows there's one word that best describes the landscaping done by your builder: LAME. (In all caps, just like that.)

Combine that with soggy red clay mud (wow, it's actually worse here than in Tennessee!) and you have epic LAME! The test of time will tell us how well our new (and old) plants will hold up in these horrific soil conditions.

Nevertheless, here are the before shots. Oh, and I finally figured out how to change the picture size so that it won't get cut off by the margin. Don't I feel dumb!



I added the pansies as soon as Spring fever overcame me. Don't you just love brown bushes that are supposed to be evergreen? Oops, guess that's what happens when they're dead. There was some dark green ground cover that looked like big clumps of grass in the front area. When it dies back during winter, it looks like half the flowerbed is empty.

Water puddled all the time by the gutter drain which made this flowerbed even more of a water wasteland. When we removed some of the bushes, water was puddled below them. Note to the average Joe homeowner: clay soil retains water worse than a baby diaper! Pampers should seriously do some research on using clay in their product.




I didn't like how the four bushes in the back didn't line up with the windows. I guess they're in line with the holly tree on the end, but that tree matches the one on the other end of the house. And of course there's more half dead or completely dead evergreen things in the front.

Oh, and I must say, I loathe pine needles! Everyone around here has them, but they are so annoying! They'll poke you so much you'll think you're at the doctor's office, and they're not easy to shift around when you're working in the flowerbeds.

Here's what it looks like after all the work:



Mulch! Bye bye pine straw!! Took care of the drainage problem with a big plastic black tube thing (how's that for technical?). Saved the three evergreen bushes that looked half way alive and kept all of the holly bushes. Added two bushes in the back that are supposed to get huge (we'll have to cut them back). Sorry I can't remember what they're called. Matt keeps up with that part. Added some euonymous, nandina, and the yellowish-green things that looks like bushy hair.

Matt put together the bistro set that we got at Lowes on sale for $70. Not bad. The ferns we added make me think of home in Tennessee. Mom always has ferns.


Realigned the holly bushes in the back. Not sure about the spacing with the two in the middle close together, but eventually, they should look like one big bush. A big white pipe for the sewer limited us some what on where we could place them. We added more of the same bushes from the other side except we also added another type of small holly bush. Since the other hollies have done well, we figured it might be good to try some more since they don't seem to mind the bad soil.

Here's the overall look. Much more homey now!