Isn't yard work fun?

We've been in our house for close to three months and I still can't believe we're homeowners! I mean, it all happened in such a whirlwind that it still seems a little unreal. But Shane and I haven't wasted any time putting our mark on the place. There is still a lot left in the works but I think we've made pretty good progress so far. 

Our front and back yard needs a major overhaul. Unfortunately, hanging around Lowe's for hours doesn't guarantee that the Yard Crashers crew will show up, but it will get you some weird looks from the employees. Shane and I decided to try and tackle the project ourselves, and we've started to see why people hire landscapers.

The yard isn't horrible, but just really overgrown. It's a good example of what happens when you overdo it with the decorative grasses and shrubs, and also don't like to do a lot of weeding. 

Our game plan so far has been to rip everything out, including the cheap plastic edging. Sometime in the future, when it's in our budget, this tree will be chopped down as it's a Bradford pear and very near the front of the house as well as the driveway, and we don't want to have any big limbs fall on anything. For now, this will have to do. We may also add some flowers around it for the meantime to liven it up. 

The back yard was more of the same. It's not a big yard but a good portion of it was taken up by these gigantic bushes around the deck. The bamboo has a bit out of hand and has started "running" all over the yard, which turns out is basically preventable by pouring a concrete barrier in the ground or not having bamboo.

Just look at those bushes! They were as tall as Shane, and absolutely completely full of spiders.

It took a lot of digging on Shane's part, and a lot of trimming on mine, but we finally got them out of there! The back yard feels a lot bigger and you can actually walk to the gate without getting coated in spiders (not that the gate really opens very well, but that's another project for another day).

We have plans to build some narrow raised vegetable beds around the deck. We're also going to install some planters around the deck where we'll plant some lemongrass, lavender, and catnip to keep the mosquitoes and spiders at bay. Oh yeah, did I mention our yard is also swarming in mosquitoes? 

And check out our brush pile! That was before we'd even torn up all the stumps. With the six bags of yard waste from our front yard in progress plus all this mess, we're definitely keeping Metro Nashville brush pickup in business. 

Photos of our progress on the inside of the house coming soon!