Mary, Mary, quite contrary, How does your garden grow?

All spring long I kept saying, I HATE GARDENING!  Now that the fruits of our labor have paid off...I might not use the word HATE anymore.

Growing up my mom always had the most beautiful garden in our small yard.  I never appreciated how much love and care went into it until I decided to have my own. 

To the right is what the front of our house looked like when we bought it almost two years ago. Each side had an evergreen tree, a big redish colored tree/bush, LOTS of lavender, and some other random perennials. 

Last summer we pulled out everything, but the evergreens and put in a few plants.  With so many wedding festivities at our house we wanted the front to be somewhat acceptable. 

This summer, we decided to over haul the entire front.  First came yanking out those tree's.  I hate to pull a tree out of the ground, but truth be told we had no idea how to take care of it.  It was totally out of hand and too wily to frame our front door.  Chris tied a few boyscout knots to one of the trees, attached the rope to the truck and drove.  Those babies came out and pulled right across the pavement perfectly. 

After that was done we had to order screened loam to replace the dirt that was currently residing in our garden beds.  The old dirt was full of concrete from the construction of the house and sand that was used to fill the cracks between the pavers.  The day the truck delivered the dirt was a nasty one, but we didn't give up despit the rain.  We dug out quite a bit of the old dirt and then shoveled in the new stuff.  IT WAS TOUGH WORK!  I have a new found respect for landscapers.

Next was planting which is where I got cheap and needy.  I didn't want to spend money on plants that I didn't know how to take care of and would be replanting and rebuyihg next year.  My mom came through like a champ and took a ton of stuff from hers and a friends garden.  That almost filled up the space! 

There is a house down the street from us that sells plants out front in the spring at a super cheap price.  They are mostly annuals but the price was right and I knew I'd need some to fill in blank spaces.

I then went and had the back of the truck filled with mulch...the darkest available.  We laid soaker hoses and then mulched, and mulched, and mulched. 

Chris took it upon himself to put pavers down to line the side of the garden that is edged with grass.  As usual Chris went above and beyond (aka was wicked anal) and the result is absolutely beautiful.

In the end, all the hard work was well worth it.  Whenever I pull up the driveway and stare it all the beautiful flowers and their colors it puts a smile on my face.