Yard Work = Hard Work!

Remember these pictures from last spring? My slave labor raking the yard in preparation for it to be beautiful. We made a ton of progress on our yard last year. It went from being a pile of dirt and weeds as tall as me (insert short joke here) to almost covered in grass with a really nice play set (complete with rubber mulch) and a flower bed with about 3 flowers. Besides the flower bed and the dogs digging up my raspberry bushes, the yard came a long way. This year I am determined to have a beautiful yard. Yes, complete with a flower bed with lots of flowers to my blossoming berry garden.

This is at Easter last year, notice my "flower bed"

I grew up with tons of inspiration for what a beautiful yard should look like. My parents were Care Takers for a gorgeous "ranch" with immaculate landscaping. It looked like something out of a magazine; in fact it should have been in one. I spent many summers working alongside my green-thumbed mother and a landscaping crew learning the tricks of the trade. Here are my goals for this year:

1) Grass covering 97% of my backyard. Would say 100% but I have two kids and two dogs, not likely.

2) 100% of my front yard covered in lush green grass.

3) My flower bed to actually be a flower bed so when we have BBQs people aren't walking in it because they don't know it was a flower bed... My fault for giving up on so quickly last year and planting late.

4) Berry garden with blueberries, strawberries and raspberries. I have decided a raised bed will be best to keep my kids (and their little dogs too!) out of it so it can have a fighting chance this year. Not expecting a huge crop, that will come next year.

5) Permanently fencing in Anna and Zach's play area. Already started this, so it should be easy.

Stay tuned for some INCREDIBLE (haha) before and after photos at the end of the summer. I'm a stay at home mom now, what else do I have to do, right?

Here is my "before" picture for the year.  Again, much, much better than when we moved in

but no where near where I hope to be by the end of the summer.