Taming the yard

We are very excited about our yard. There is lots of space, an already large vegetable garden plot, compost bins, rain barrels, and a playhouse with climbing rope.

 But sadly it is very overgrown. The previous owners moved out early in the summer. Which meant not alot got done over that time. And the result is the landscaping is taking over. Add to the fact there are just some odd parts of the flower beds/gardens and it's a huge job taming it back down. Over Labor Day weekend we did alot of work outside.
We dug out a flower bed in preparation for moving a raised bed in the middle of the pavement.

Garage and side flower bed- before

fully dug out

raised bed that will eventually be removed completely

 I cleaned out the compost piles.

compost pile before

compost pile after

We trimmed bushes and trees.

Wisteria before

Wisteria after

And mowed down the vegetable garden that was over grown with wild, native grass.

garden plot after

 Mark fixed the side gate.

 gate with new top board and caster

 I pulled vines off our garage.

Garage before

garage after

And there is still so much to do. We filled up an entire back of a dump truck and could probably do it again. 

the dump truck we got from the city was full when we were done

Part of me thinks for all the work we did you can hardly tell. But again it was progress. And I'm already dreaming of all the things we can do. It's lovely. And will be even more beautiful for all our hard work. 

We keep spotting this beautiful bug around the yard. Although actually I think there are at least two as the other one is more copper in color. The boys love it when I find them and point them out. I don't think they are very happy with us as we keep trimming away at their hiding places.