Hittin' the yard Part 1

Anyone who has ever tackled a remodeling or a construction project knows that in the process, your yard takes quite a beating. Our's was no different. Between the renovation, move and everything else last summer, we decided to not even attempt to work on the yard. This spring, however, we hit it with full gusto!

Here are some of the before shots. Remember that these were taken in March when everything was dormant and nothing was up yet. Pretty bleak!

 

 

First step? To pull out alllll the invasive ivy. What a chore. Back-breaking more like. It still almost completely covers the large tree in the back corner, but we're going to leave that...until later.

Once we pulled all the ivy out, we needed some plants.  lots of plants.  Then, we heard through the neighboorhood grapevine, that since one of the houses was being remodeled, the plants in the garden were free game--rather than be demolished by trucks and worker dudes who have no regard for anything green, we could come pick and choose.  Jackpot!!  I can't tell you how many wheelbarrow treks J made back and forth.  The Noodle and I were his moral support.  Ha!  Here's what we got:

We did end up giving some of the hosta, iris and peonies to J's folks, so not all of these are ours.  But still.  I can't even begin to imagine what it would have cost us to go to the local gardening center and loaded up like this.  The ultimate in recycling!

Check back to see our progress.......