
Come on now, you should know that there is no way my yard looked like this.
It started off like this…

But before that, Melissa came over and helped me decorate two Patriotic Cup-Cakes.


ah-ha-ha-ha! They’re cakes, made from cupcakes! Thanks to “Hello Cupcake!”, though ours looked pretty much nothing like the one in the book except that they were made from cupcakes. But I did get to organize a stack of paper baking cups into 4 colors.
Then Friday morning I got to work. Here are some pre-pictures.


I pulled up a box of weeds… put the weed barriers in place AND mulched. Steve did do three or four “deliveries” to the area, pulled out two barberries (if your landscaper says that barberries are a good idea, I want you to punch them.) and planted our two new plants.

Screw you barberry!

That is the hole you USED to occupy and now you’re behind the tree in the back of the house. You didn’t even give me a chance to kill you, I guess you wanted it to hurt when Steve removed you from the garden. I never liked you anyways.
Now this I like…

That would be a cactus. Yes, like a real cactus, blooming in MY YARD!!!
And here’s your required Bailey picture of the event. She hadn’t seen a sprinkler in action, so when we put the new one on, she didn’t know what to do.

After some well deserved showers, we went over to a friends house for a cook out, volleyball and a fire. B likes to go over because they have a black lab and they basically spend the day chasing the ball around the yard.
Here she is, waiting for SOMEONE, ANYONE to throw the ball.

Our friends also have two girls (3 years and 11 months) and I’ll usually hang out with them… thus explaining the toys in the background.
BTW, Steve left me a message on the answering machine last night (I opted to hang out in the yard). “(the 3-year old) wants to know where you and Bailey are because she misses you.”
So when Beeses is done playing, she lays down.

Yes, she is RIGHT NEXT to the grill. She also likes to lay next to the fire and a few fires ago, an ember landed on her. She was excited because people were touching her, to put out the smoldering ember.
Sunday morning, I put the swing together and Steve worked on some mulching. I then cleard out the last weed box and cleared the way for my flags, peonies and some cool purple plant. I planted Sweet Dreams and Heaven’s Gate in the back box and once they really take, I’ll photograph them.
We also compromised on the daisies.
I pulled out the lot in front and replaced them with my Arizona Blanket.
The BirchBell is planted near the tree.
Steve moved the back hosta to the hole where the Most Evil Barberry was.

I love the fact that our yard is now nice to look at… neighbors probably think that someone new moved in… I’m no longer embarrassed of the view of my weed boxes from the road.
And at the end of the day, my cactus had bloomed twice.

(posted from the glider swing.)