It's a Jungle Out There. . .

Referring to the landscaping in the front of our house.  Ever since we moved in I've been trying to figure out what to do with the space with no luck.  I enlisted the help of my mom and my sister Jessica, who really helped me find some direction and gave me great ideas.  On Saturday, Josh and I spent pretty much the whole day cleaning out all the weeds (some as tall as Harrison!) and Josh rearranged the brick border a little.  We bought some mulch and went ahead and put that down since we didn't know when we would actually get flowers planted. 

My mom was such a big help and drove down from Pittsburgh yesterday to go with me to buy plants.  It was an eventful trip to Lowe's, including poor Harrison getting attacked by the grasses we put in the cart with him.  We came home and had some lunch and put little man down for his nap, then we got to work.  It was ridiculously hot outside, but we powered through and finished everything before Harrison got up from his nap.

A big Thank you!! goes to Josh for laboring all Saturday with me to give us a clean slate to work with.  To Jessica for give me some direction.  And to my Mom for helping me pick out the plants and actually plant them. 


This picture was taken shortly after we moved in to our house last August.  It doesn't really do justice for what the flowerbed looked like when we started on Saturday, but it's the best I have.  

 
Drum roll please!!. . .
Here are the results of our labor!  We put ornamental grasses in the back (especially hoping they will hide the gas meter on the right and the wires/electric meter on the left).  Then we added Tiger Eye Rudbeckias, Zinnias and begonias.  The grasses and rudbeckia will come back each year!!

We have a little built-in brick planter on the front porch that we planted geraniums and lovely verbenas. To top it all off we have a hanging basket of begonias.

Now I just have to keep the weeds at bay (not really my favorite part) and think about what to add next year!