Even though I love the idea of flower beds, my husband and I have proved that we should never be entrusted with them. You see, I have an embarrassing secret – our backyard has turned into a jungle.
So here’s how it’s going to go – I’m going to give you a slew of excuses and explanations for the sad state of our backyard and then I’m going to show you the shameful pictures – and you’re not going to judge me. Mmkay, got a deal?
I realized our backyard had gotten out of control when I found myself admiring the lovely dappled light coming in the frosted window in our bathroom. You see, there shouldn’t have been any dappled light because there shouldn’t be any trees outside our bathroom window. This is how that little area of the backyard looked in April (back when we laid some sod):
And here’s how it looked last weekend:
Another area went from this:
to this:
Yeah. There are no words for the disaster that our backyard had become. It’s embarrassing. Who knew our backyard could go back to nature in just a few months? (But in our defense, this area is around the side of the house where we never look. See? I promised you excuses!).
Anyway, last Friday and Saturday we decided to take the first step toward ridding ourselves of this ridiculous eyesore by tearing up the jungle, along with all the random pieces of cement and edging that were sprinkled around. The plan is to replace the flower beds with sod (which we can handle). The area along the house went from this:
to this:
And those jungle-y areas now look a little something like this:
I know, we still have a long way to go before it’s remotely acceptable, but we made some serious progress – hallelujah! You can take a look at all of the jungle debris as proof of our progress:
And the concrete pavers in the pile below were quite a hot commodity – about half of them were gone from the curb after just a few minutes!
We’re hoping to complete the transformation next weekend, so fingers crossed that we get our acts together and make that happen. What about you guys? Are you as appalled by our backyard as I am? Tackle any big projects over the weekend?
P.S. You may have noticed that there’s no Inspiration Tuesday blog party today – I hope that hasn’t thrown you off! There just didn’t seem to be as much interest as I’d hoped, so it’s been retired for awhile – maybe it’ll make a comeback someday! In the meantime, you are still more than welcome to link to your inspiring posts in the Comments section – just be sure to put your link in “quotes” so that it will show up!
Girl, I can totally relate to you on this one. My flower beds can be weeded and pretty one day then 3 later I’ve got a jungle. I’m not even joking, you should have seen my trash bin at the curb this morning.
And I’ve missed Inspiration Tuesday the past few weeks, then I mentioned it today and it’s no more. :(
Wow! Looks good.
But, I’m currently in mourning for the irises. I love them with all my heart and I don’t see any left. Are you getting rid of them completely or replanting???
Looks like my Saturday – lawn work all day! Trying to desperately improve the state of our grass and I gave our bushes a nice fall trim. I could definitely feel that I worked hard the next day – sore muscles!
Kristina,
I know!! I felt like a creep when I saw your inspiration post this morning – bummer!! Thanks for linking up, though. :)
Kim,
I hate to admit it, but we gave them the boot. I was in love with them, too, for the few weeks that they looked great, but we really wanted to expand the grassy area in the yard. You’re right, we probably should have tried to replant them, but I’m pretty sure I would have wound up killing them in my attempt to save them. :(
Nicole,
I know, isn’t it ridiculous how sore gardening can make you? I bet your yard is looking fab!
~ Liz
Liz – you should see the grass in my front yard. We’re still moving boxes and painting, I just don’t have the energy.
I’m sorry Inspiration Tuesday has been retired :(
No way would I judge you – my garden was looking OK-ish before the recent parental visit, but 4 weeks later, it’s a disaster again! You’ve made some really great progress here.
Since I did a rare post on inspirations today, I am going to take you up on your offer of linking up.
I think ditching the flowers and going with more grass is the way to go, especially if you can’t even see that part of the grass from your goregous patio area. SMART GIRL!
Wow you weren’t kidding – it’s a total jungle! And I’m so impressed that you’re cleaning it all up yourselves – I might be tempted to hire a crew. Our backyard is worse though – it’s a barren wasteland. No plants, a few trees, and a bunch of dirt through the patchy grass. UGH! We keep saying we’ll fix it up…next year! ha!