Garden

I was so proud of myself for taking before pictures. I did however forget to take pictures of the backyard area. You know, the one with empty area with spray painted blue x's. [BTW, Ry knew all about 'x marks the spot' stuff.] Now, we have two lilacs against the side fence:

And one lilac nearer to the pool. The landscaper thought they would work nice in these areas. They grow big and bushy if not trimmed, provide nice amounts of privacy and will have all their pollen blooming shedding time before the pool opens.

Here is the main attraction: The actual landscaping:
This is the far side of the house. Notice the cute little plant hiding the gas meter. And the dug up rocks the landscaper worker dude thought looked nice:

The 'new tree and some plants under it. These little plants won't get taller but will spread to cover around the base of the tree.

Same area, different angle:

V. hard to tell from this shot but there are three plants in the back that are deciduous and two smaller evergreen plants in front. The back plants will grow to be about the height of the window boxes and the front ones will stay shorter.

Ack! Our maple is already shedding on the new mulch! Bad tree.

From the driveway:

All in all, we are pleased. Our neighbors are also very pleased. Both sides have come over and told us already how much they like it. Always good to stay in the neighbor's good graces. Each of them took the opportunity to complain about another neighbor's yards.

I was so motivate by how nice the front looked I got over my fear of the weedwacker and went to town in the back yard. At least until the battery died.

Next up, finding a cute bistro style table and chairs for the front steps.