what a difference a day makes!

well, today was the day! yard overhaul! mom and i started this morning around 11am...we dug holes...placed plants...pulled weeds...and dug up grass in places that needed to be "natural area"

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here are some of the "during" shots...see your lovely "hole digger" below...

plants scattered about with a bunch of holes in the ground...notice in the first picture below we dug up the (soon to be) big cypress tree to make room for the crepe myrtle

here's the cypress tree waiting to be put in his new home...

after this, we put most of the plants in the ground...then we headed to lowes for mulch, a little bit more potting soil, and possibly some more plants--we wanted to see what they had...then chic-fil-a for a quick lunch...YUM!! i told mom that we shouldn't have ever stopped for lunch...i was getting tired and a little overwhelmed...but CARRY ON!

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we ended up getting some more of the candytuft (the little white flowers from yesterday's post) and i got 2 gardenias for the natural area right by the front steps...HEAVEN! :)

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here's the first "after" shots...the shrubs in the back...then the knockout roses...then the little candytuft to add a little white pop in there...then the crepe myrtle on the far left...(the crepe myrtle is hard to see in this one)

in the above picture, you can see the first gardenia bush right next to the sidewalk at the back of this photo...

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and in the one below here...the gardenia again :)

and next, is the right side of the porch (these pictures came out a little better--its a little shadier over there)...you can really see the roses with the white in the front and my crepe myrtle on the corner...and of course, the gardenia in the bottom left


next is perhaps the most neglected part of the yard (other than the kidney bean...) here we put in the firepower nandinas in the front of the natural part with the cherry laurels next (they were already there...we just trimmed these guys) and in the back is the euonymos emerald n' gold...with the white camelia bush in the middle!

and the kidney bean area ALREADY looks tons better...one white crepe myrtle in the middle with some mounded mulch and HOPEFULLY some grass will grow in the rest...mom seeded and fertilized it for me...and the bermuda grass will grow like crazy this summer!

it doesn't have as much of the "instant gratification" today...but long term it will look so much better, i think!

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here's where the cypress ended up...and we moved the silver hawthorne bush up front...this tree just LOOKS like it was supposed to be here...MUCH BETTER!!! not on the side of our house!?!

here's me and mom after a LONG day! we finished up around 4ish...we made pretty good time and just look at the improvement!! there is NO WAY i could've done this without her! this lady is a gardening landscape MACHINE!!! she even brought her own tools! i had so much fun with her today and learned enough to write a book!

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THANKS MOM!!

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here's the two of us with our "finished project"

...and if you were wondering...lee had today off, too...he had doggie duty...he and nershi went running on the trails in raleigh and had a ball!

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as far as the weather goes...there is no way the weather could've been more perfect today--we worked outside ALL day and never got overly hot...just beautiful with a breeze here and there...and the rest of the week? RAIN for my beautiful yard! :)

what a day!! i am SOOOOOOOO excited! i'll be sure to post pictures of everything when it starts blooming! :) the best part about this whole project is that the yard now looks like it was supposed to be that way and that someone lives here and loves this house! before, it was so builder-y and mostly dead and neglected looking and even the stuff that was living was starting to get overgrown! once i get my fence i'll be set!!