I love springtime! There is just something in the air that makes me want to get outside to plant some flowers and do yard work. This year was no exception to that. It seems like I'm continually going to Lowes to buy flowers and potting soil during this time of the year. Side note - did you know that Lowes has fantastic markdown prices on their plants/shrubs/flowers? In my area starting around the last week of April they'll mark down things 75% off. You can get really good deals on plants if you're patient and check back often. The good stuff goes FAST! Check it out if you're looking to save this spring on plants or flowers. But back to the house. One thing that I love about my house is my big front porch. To me there is just something inviting about an open porch. I like to fill mine with flowers, plants, white furniture, and pretty pillows. I already showed a picture of my front door last week so here is the rest of the porch/front yard this year.
It hasn't always looked like this though, oh no it hasn't! This is the outcome of working on it off and on for 4 years. When we first bought the house, you couldn't even see the house with all of the over-grown shrubbery blocking everything. Don't believe me? Well, this is what the yard looked like the day we closed on the house.
Gigantic-needs-to-be-majorly- pruned tree in front, followed by cedar shrubs that were killing the grass, than a brown fence, and finally the house. In fact, I texted this picture to a relative and she asked to see the front of the house! Ha! So after 2 years of off and on work the front yard it looked like this ~
A big improvement, right?! The mistake I did 2 years ago was to plant too small plants in the flower beds. I hoped they would grow, but they ended up being too small and incorrect for the amount of sun they received. The result was that every single flower and plant died! Good thing that Lowes has a year guarantee on their perennial plants. Here's what those flower beds looked like on the day we moved in ~
I did clean all the weeds and stuff out of the beds after moving in, removed the fence (well, after the wind knocked down half of it), and took out the huge cedar shrubs. It stayed that way for 2 years until I planted some small flowers and plants. I was so proud of these beds! Then the sweltering heat attacked and everything died that couldn't withstand 115 degrees for weeks on end. My little plants didn't have a chance.
After that summer, I didn't do anything the next year. Then, motivation hit when my family came to visit for Thanksgiving. My dad and brothers fixed all the problems I was having in those flowers beds and got them ready for spring planting! Whoot! So the beds that were once weed infested now look like this ~
So what's the point of sharing the long back story of my yard? Well, it's to encourage you that houses aren't built in a day. Rome wasn't built overnight and neither will your home be. Sometimes we tend to look and see pretty pictures of how things are today while forgetting the process that happened in the middle. Sometimes that process is short while other times it takes years. I think my front yard is a great example of this. It's taken 4 long, embarrassing years for my yard to look even remotely appealing. So many times when we rush the process, we miss some important lessons along the way. I've learned so much during the last few years yet still have much to learn. One thing I've had to learn is patience. But what about you? What's the story of your home?
/ / See the rest of the house here / /
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