Clueless Landscaper

Alright.
Confession time. Beyond giving baby the paci after it touched the Starbucks floor, (then feeling guilty, and promptly cleaning it off and giving it to him again....),  beyond wearing my jeans several times before washing, and beyond the six breadsticks I ate *before* dinner arrived at Olive Garden....

I confess I have never done yard work.

Ever.

As in, after trying to dig a hole with a shovel for ten minutes and making a mere dimple in the ground, my husband (and, unfortunately, my in-laws), compassionately removed the shovel from my hands and just asked, "So...you've never used a shovel...huh."

Well. My life as a princess is officially over.  (Was there really any question after the first night I brought the baby home from the hospital?)  But now, it's really over. I even have calluses on my hands to prove it. CALLUSES.

We are finally landscaping our yard! We bought our first home a year ago,  and for the FIRST time are touching the yard. And we aren't starting small

We have 'balding' spots on either side of our yard, so we decided to just haul out the old, and put in brand-new grass. Little did we know, due to really REALLY bad holly, we would have to rent a tiller, till the ground, remove the dirt, rent a uhaul to 'haul' it to dumpster, till land again, remove dirt again, and level the ground for the new grass

Lame.

So here's where we started (after tilling)

Yikes!
And by 'we', I mean I helped hauling the dirt and axing weeds, but my AMAZING father in law and AMAZING husband did  a lot most of the work. My MIL helped so much too, planning where we should put everything, picking out plants for me, teaching me why what should go where....basically, without Donevie, we would NOT have been able to get a fraction of what we got done, done!

So thank you, beloved and incredibly amazing parents-in-law! You are amazing in more ways than we can count!

While we were at the grass, we got some new flowerbeds too! I learned this is not as easy at it sounds. It's pretty dang exhausting, honestly, hauling dirt, axing roots...quite a workout!
Here's my new flowerbeds!

 Hostas, and the purple hydrangea's are my fave

 Japanese boxwood (all of you probably know all this, I tell you like you have no idea because until this weekend *I* thought a boxwood was a dog breed)

 front flower bed 1

front flower bed 2
(to the left is mexican heather, which I am stoked about ((again who am I?)) and the rosemary next to it! )
So now.
We are now watering the grass three times/day to maintain for next month until it attaches.
 Some hard work! (though it didn't help I was sick, baby was sick and baby has 4 teeth coming in still, but pretty sure it would have been exhausting nonetheless!) Four bruises, multiple gashes, legs full of bites& two hands full of calluses later, we are done with phase 1!

A hard day's work :) I must admitt, doing lawn work was very oddly, incredibly rewarding. There's something to be said for being out there touching dirt and experiencing the back yard! I think I will do it again. No, wait, I have to do it again....I just planted a bajillion plants. Oh well! Good thing I love it, despite how out-of-place I still feel in vegetation.

I feel like such a big girl now