Monday, April 23, 2012

Planting Party!

What did we do last Saturday night after showing our neighbors some love??  Shower, re-energize with a Diner dinner and hunt down the perfect plants to spruce up our em-BARE-assing yard at Home Depot, of course.

Thanks to some smart thinking by my mom, we took a couple minutes to map out our beds on paper before we left the house.  We took note of how many, what size and what type of plants we'd need to purchase.  This step was super helpful, and totally eliminated some clueless wandering that definitely would have taken place.

Luckily for us, HD had an awesome selection of plants, at the perfect prices.  Before I knew it, the sun had set, the workers were desperately trying to close the lawn section of the store and we were trying to check out with two, fully loaded carts.

{Hubby with our carts...}

Once we paid, it was on to renting a Home Depot truck.  Thank gosh for those rentals because there was noooo way we were fitting two trees, multiple bushes, a pitchfork {for our future mulch delivery} and a bunch of mountain pinks into either one of our cars.

{Hubby and Papa Dukes locking up our precious cargo...}

With only a couple minor heart attacks {trees falling over, told you they wouldn't stay standing...the bed popping open....our scotch broom bush almost flying out the back...eeeek}, we made it home safe and sound.


The next morning it was time to set all the plants where we wanted them to go.  Plotting everything out before we started digging any holes ensured that we didn't make any mistakes with placement. 

{Hubby and Mom hard at work.}

Before we could get it just right, a poorly placed plant needed to be removed.  Lucky for us, our neighbors were more than happy to help out on Sunday after we painted their house on Saturday.

{Our neighbor easily ripping our sad looking rhododendron out of the ground.}

Since we semi-planned before we even went to Home Depot, it didn't take too long to figure out the perfect layout.

{Bed to the left of the front door...}

{Bed to the right of the front door...}


{Small section of the bed to the left of our front door.  A few tulips and hyacinths growing wildly in our backyard also got transplanted here.}

{Bed along the back of the driveway...}

{Bed along the front of the driveway.  See how much needed to be weeded out of there!!  And we already cleared this bed out a couple months ago.  I can tell we'll be battling this one for years to come...}

Once the layout was taken care of...it was time to start digging!  Well, the strong hubby's started digging. ;)

{Pete planting one of two white azaleas given to us by his mom.} 

My neighbor and I began weeding the AWFUL bed that runs along the driveway.  Thankfully, it wasn't long before the plants were in, watered and the boys were joining us to help clear out the huge "nightmare" bed.

After a couple hours of hard work, our yard was finally starting to show some life.








And don't worry...I know that our beds still look very unfinished.  But never fear!  We had a friend who does landscaping, drop off 8 yards of mulch...and the boys got busy spreading it this past weekend. 

After we get an additional 4 yards {12 yards in total}, we'll finally have our place fully mulched!

 {First 4 yard delivery in the driveway...}

BTW, I was hoping to have some fun pictures, and possibly videos of some major tree work on our property from today, but that plan has been put on hold.  The nor'easter that brought torrential rains to the East Coast yesterday caused our tree people to reschedule for Friday.  Fingers crossed that I'll have some fun updates from that work for you guys by early next week!

20 comments:

  1. Yay, plants! And birthday plants at that! It's going to look so good. Also, I must know the color of your front door. MUST!

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  2. Your plants look so gorgeous! We need to mulch ours and work on transplanting/adding more flowers to the front. Yard work is hard and time consuming!

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    1. Thank you, Ashley!! Yard work definitely is time consuming and tough. Luckily, my hubby loves it {as much as one could love yard work haha} and we have a very helpful neighbor who can help us with the heavy stuff. :)

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  3. these look beautiful! once they start to fill in, it will look awesome too :). i hate spreading mulch but it's going to look so good once you get it done!

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    1. Thank you! Yea, I know the plants are small now, but over time they'll fit the space nicely! We just need to find some patience till then. ;)

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  4. "Em-bare-assing" hahaha. Your yard is going to be looking great in no time! And you have some serious energy/motivation if you went plant shopping at Home Depot after helping paint the neighbors' house. Impressed!

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    1. Haaaa...I'm glad you enjoyed that lol. Honestly, I'm shocked I found the energy and motivation to go. I was beat, but once I was at HD I was sooo excited about picking out plants {dorky, I know lol}.

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  5. Your lot is lovely! Enjoy your new plants - they're beautiful!

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  6. That mulch is going to look great! I love black mulch. The yard is looking great! What a big job eh?

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  7. I like your plant selections. 12 yards of mulch is a ridculous amount of mulch. We had 3 yards delivered and I thought that was a lot!

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    1. Thanks John! Yea, it's quite a bit of mulch...I knew we'd need a lot for the amount of beds we have in our yard. And we even got rid of some of the beds they had when we bought the house!

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  8. Whoooo, that's a lot of work, girl! I LOVE your new trees. Everything looks great!

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  9. It looks great!! You guys have been so busy! Cant wait to see what else you've done! :)

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