Mixed Nuts: Before and Middle

Did I fool you? Thought I was going to see before and after didn't you?

I am going to post pictures of the front yard. Disclaimer - it is not done. It is in the middle of being done. Hence the title. So - keep that in mind when you see the pictures.

I would have rather DIY wow'd you next year (or not, if the plants all die......) but I wanted my parents and Mat's parents to see how different the yard looks since the last time they were here. And I am afraid what IS still alive out there will go into late fall hibernation by the time we see them again.

Also - please keep in mind - I have cut most of the plants back so that they would survive transplant. I have bought basically NOTHING - these plants are all transplants from the crazy front yard we used to have. And......a lot went bye-bye. How many Shasta daisies does one need, really.

And I haven't even moved all the plants from the back yard yet. Shudder. Yes, there is more.

The frogs, squirrels, chipmunks and deer would like to know who messed with their food. "it was in one spot!" I can hear them squeak when I see them each morning digging flippin' holes in my mulch. They have to WORK for their food. This is NOT okay.

But to me, it is heaven. I remember looking at the front yard several days in a row and then just turning right back around and going back into the house. Did not know where to hide. So - after a bee attack, 6 baby bunnies, a snake, a skunk, countless frogs and probably somewhere a partridge in a pear tree, the yard is CLEAN(er).

We planted the grass and are hoping it is somewhat in before it snows. Or before the squirrels eat all the seed.

Here is the BEFORE:

So - without final ado, here is the front yard.....in the middle:

This is what you would see from our driveway near the house. I am sure my friend Maria could tell you the names of all the plants. (and she would remind me that she told me too), but I can't remember them all. All I wanted to know is "do they flower" and "are they pretty". After that - anything goes. I can tell you that the pink flowering thing is called Stone Crop. Love it. Had it in my last yard. I need more for that area to fill it in, but this is good for now. The green "creeping" stuff that looks like grass is creeping thyme. Smells really good. We will be putting more in where you see the dirt areas. Next. year. Everything has been cut back, so all flowers are mostly gone because everything but the stone crop was transplanted.

Okay - this isn't yard. But it is our side porch and it is decorated for fall. This one is for my decorating mother.

This is the area we filled in after we removed the 6 bushes and all the weeds. I filled it in with day lilies and hosta. It doesn't get a ton of sun. And again - we cut everything way back, so it looks really short right now. The dirt area will become all creeping thyme.....if we are lucky. We re leaving the stepping stones there. We removed all the rest (and will be using them to build our fire pit....yeah!)

This is our path up to our main entrance. Part of it. Don't mind the water - I was hosing all the dirt off the path. Let's see - the little plants.....no idea.....but behind the wall (next to the hay that is covering our new grass area) - that is echinacea, Shasta daisy and lily - which are all cut down to help them live. On the left hand side and right hand side of the path are more day lilies and something else LIKE day lilies....I forget. What WAS there was something really ugly and overgrown. Oh, and my pumpkin holds mums. So cute.

The new grass area. And see the hole in the middle? No....it isn't a fire pit. It is a very stubborn tree trunk that was buried in the middle of all those plants she had. So - Mat dug it up and he is going to put stump rot on it and in 5-6 weeks? We get to burn it out. Holla!

The plants along the front of the rock wall are all perennial mums. They are going to look awesome (if they ever hurry up and bloom)

View up the path to the main entrance. I love the light post. It was buried under plants and the bottom is damaged, but Mat is going to fix it up good as new.

the walkway. It needs some work. Actually - it will eventually be removed and replaced with stones. Around the lamp post is something called balloon flower (it was really pretty before Maria made me cut it....so it wouldn't die.) and iris.

Mums (so far I have discovered I have deep red, light red, yellow, and white) and our new grass area.

The house and it's new yard. It is very happy we can now see it properly. And there are no hiding places for strange animals.

These are our burning bushes. They are so tall they are more like burning trees. Today I gave them a small trim. once they lose their leaves I am going to make them shorter. I can't wait to see them when they are fire red.

This area had nothing before I started messing with it. It was mulch and few sad looking lavender bushes and nothing else. I think she had things here, but I don't know where they went. So I took stuff from the massive planting in front of the house and moved it here. Here are blanket flower (Arizona suns) and iris. Also - in the back will be Russian sage which smells AMAZING. There are 8 of them back there and they get big and purple and lovely. You can't seem them because someone (Maria) made me cut them down. :)

This is down closer to the end of our driveway. The large bushes (can't remember their name) where there, but everything else I added. It was empty. But the mulch was there. I put in more blanket flower, a beautiful white rose bush, Shasta daisies, hosta, day lilies and Jack in the Pulpit. I am going to be adding a few more things in the blank areas once I go around the back of the house (shudder) and see what is back there.

More of the front area of the driveway. It needs more mulch, actually - since I planted.

Front of the driveway

View from the entrance of our driveway. It is so nice to drive up now and see our house. We love our house and now we can see it. And that makes me realize that its days of being yellow are numbered.

Front area of the yard. There are the Arizona Suns, and some of the cut iris and in the back - the - now very short - Russian Sage.

These are some of the newly planted mums. I found a ton throughout the yard and a bought a few (they are 99 cents at Home Depot right now!).

Sigh. Looks so much better. So happy now....

Our little light post. It was there. Just kind of hidden behind plants. How it is happy with just blanket flower, iris and a few day lilies.

View from the path back to the stone crop, lily, lavender and knock out roses (they are pink like the stone crop.) The green is the creeping thyme. The stone walk was UNDER it - you couldn't even see it - I freed it.

The grass area. And the stump. And the Shasta daisies (cut way down). The the middle will be peonies when (if) they grow.

Do not look behind the cute little welcome sign! It will hurt your eyes! What? we forgot to do one side of the house? No - I just haven't gotten that far. I am tired. so right now it is the graveyard for the many (many) stones that were in the front yard. And three little hostas that I replanted. The end.

Our front door. I took this for my mom. I started with a little pumpkin patch but they are really small. I need bigger.

View from our main door. The hose is just there to water the grass. And I am too lazy to move it because it is about 100 feet long. The dirt will be creeping thyme! (I am saying that more for my benefit than yours, so apologies)