Are You Proud?

Look what I did a couple of nights ago...

I HATED our front flower beds that I always would weed but would never plant anything in. I just couldn't catch a vision of what to do, mostly cuz we live in Arizona and colorful flowers just don't seem to "go". But Brian made me go with him to Home Depot, ride in an electric cart and go get some flowers to plant...just to get it out of my system. So, here they are. And I'll have you know that I also had to do a "mix" of new soil to native soil, etc., etc. so I was digging and mulching for awhile until I could finally put flowers in there. Well, I hope they last and the heat that's here today and for the rest of the month doesn't kill them. But at least Home Depot has a great return policy (return any plants for a year if they die and you did everything they said). So I may be asking Brian to dig them up and take them back if they wilt in the next week. :) But are you proud, since I'm delivering on Monday? :)

Okay, so now that you're impressed with me....you'll soon think twice when you now see all that Brian has done in the same amount of time I planted a few flowers in some puny potting beds.

Front Yard (See below)

1. Dug out (roots and all) two large bushes (can you see the big hole in between that row of bushes at the front of the house?) and created a whole walkway up to the door. (The best thing of all is he got all those stones for FREE!)

2. Patiently dug a hole that took at least three days to do (you can see it to the left of the palm tree) through hard tacky Arizona clay (he had to dig a little then soak it...to then be able to dig a little more) and then plant a palm tree.

3. Trimmed back all of the bushes in the front (we have about 12)

4. Re-piped (whatever it's called) the drip system for all the plants in the front

5. Pulled up all the weeds poking through the (stupid) rock garden we have to call a front yard.

Back Yard (See Below)
1. Mowed the lawn twice (in a three week period) and then continued to re-seed the lawn, and put some weed killer down.

2. Hand-dug all the big weed bushes in the grass (leaving big holes in our lawn...but that's a-ok with me...as long as the weeds are gone).

3. Trimmed back the plum tree that was hanging over into our next door neighbor's lawn

4. Trimmed back all the weeds growing around our plethora of rose bushes.

5. Trimmed a huge tree we have that hangs over into our yard (it's our neighbors).

6. Completely cleaned and hosed off our patio.

This was all while it was between 95-100 degrees outside. Dude, where did I find this guy?

In Other News...How do you like how our plum tree is faring? I know Ruth asked me to send some back with mom...I think they might be ready by then. And the nectarine tree (I thought it was lemon...it's nectarine) is starting to get some fruit! Do you see the little yellow fruit below? Cool, huh?

So, all in all, our outside is looking pretty good, which makes me very happy. It makes the hot Arizona weather bearable when you can be "tricked" with lush green all around you. :)