Starting Over

We have been in our house for right at three months. During this time, we have focused primarily on redoing the interior of the house. That is still our primary focus, but I am getting restless to get some things done in the front flowerbeds. All the pretty mums are calling my name. Today we started by completely emptying the flower beds. The shrubs had been neglected, and were growing into one another. Their stalks were so twisted and intertwined that they had lost any semblance of shape. I probably could have been patient and cut them back to the roots, but I just decided to start over. John strapped chains to them and pulled them out. He really likes driving in the yard. I think that will change once we bring in top soil and actually convince the grass to grow.

We still have several steps before we can plant anything. They need to be plowed and we will have to add a significant amount of top soil. I think we are going to price having a load brought in versus buying bags. The shrubs took a lot of soil with them when we pulled them out. It looks pretty bare right now, but I am sure it will be beautiful once some color is added. Our plan is to just do mums for now and add some more things as our budget allows. It may not have much else for a while. I also want to replace the lights that lean. John thinks it would be better if we mounted lights on the front of the arch instead of replacing the ones on top of the curves. Hopefully, it won't be too hard to drill holes on the front and fish the wires out. While we are working out front, we should probably power wash the bricks as well. This is how we get into these big messes, we start out planning to do something simple like plant some mums and wind up doing a major overhaul. It keeps us from getting bored.