Our Backyard

Since moving into our home in April 2007, we have had quite the transformation of our backyard. It started out looking something like this:

Okay, so that isn't a very good photo. But it was winter, what do you expect!

When the snow melted, our backyard became totally engulfed in weeds, and we were too embarrassed to even take a picture. I kind of wish I had a record of that time period, but then again...maybe it is for the best. It stayed that way until August, when we decided to finally clear out the brush and put in sod and a patio. The yard then looked something like this:

And, then this:

It stayed that way until this summer, when I finally talked Gordon into letting me have a little flower/vegetable garden area. Since ripping out an area of sod was out of the question since I have NO idea what I'm doing, I was granted permission to create a spot in the long weeds at the very edge of our backyard that sits along our neighbor farmer's property & fence.

My little garden area started out being the length of the area between two fenceposts (see above). My mom was here watching Cody, so Gordon and I were able to work without distraction, slaving HARD, ripping out all the long grasses and weeds, by hand. Fortunately, our farmer neighbor came over and asked what in the heck we were doing! Words were spoken, beers were exchanged, and soon he was back with his roto-tiller and riding lawnmower, clearing a HUGE area for us. We were so grateful to him but have to wonder how much he was giggling as us city-folk not knowing what we were doing.

After they were all done roto-tilling and we cleaned it up some more, we came to the final result...

We planted a few perennials/herbs that our childcare provider was gracious enough to give to us. (Ugh, look at that nice clay-soil already cracking after it'd *just* been dug up!)

Then, what did we decide to do next?

We left for a week and went to Colorado on vacation, of course!!

So, needless to say, by the time we got back, and given the fact that we didn't lay down anything like, oh, mulch...oodles of weeds had popped up and taken over my lovely flower garden. We left it that way for awhile, I was pretty mad at myself that I didn't think of this. Poor timing on our part to dig up everything right before vacation and expect it to stay that way until we had time to work on it again.

But, don't fret...my mom came down again so we were able to go back to work in the yard while she watched the little rascal. Gordon and I spent an afternoon weeding & clearing, covering, mulching, transplanting and planting...and the results were this....

There's not much there for now, but as you can see, there's lots of room to expand.

And, for the main point of my blog, I was thrilled to see one of my Hibiscus plants have its first flower on it today along with several buds. Okay, well, to me it looks like a Carnation, but I'll still take it. Don't mind its insect-eaten leaves or Lowes price tag (whatever, I shop at the big-box hardware store for plants, sue me!). I figure it's quite impressive it's stayed alive this long!