knocked two things off of the to-do list today

Today, we finished the decorative fence in the side of our yard.  After the wood has dried we will go back and paint it white to match the fences in front of our house.  We will also be adding some decorative finials to the top of the posts.

As the spring bulbs are dying back... the summer plants are coming in nicely. 
The paperbark maple also seems to be making a comeback.  :)  HOORAY.

A few days ago we finished the tree rings in front of the house.  They are completely planted and mulched.
We went with shrub roses to add to the country "cottage" charm. 

Today we also discovered that our egg... was an egg no more.

  HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHUCK!!  yes.  his name is chuck.  Congrats to Sunflower and Barry.

Here are some random photos of the house from various angles.  It is essentially the "fruits of our labor" over the past few weeks...

natural stone with thyme planted between.

front bed with berm in background.

front beds

raised tree ring in front

view of all three tree rings + front flower beds

front flower bed  with butterfly garden and pathway in rear

side walkway to backyard.

A fun day in the garden

Lex couldn't help but snap a picture of our EMPTY driveway.  It is nice to see that the driveway is once again functional. It hasn't looked like this in four years.  Now that this sentimental moment is out of the way...it is time to move on to the walkway to the front yard. 

We started our path... by laying out the stones in an order and size that looked good.  After we had them layed out, we used some spray paint to outline around where each rock will sit.  After the outline was created, it was time to cut out the "circle" and dig out the sod.  After the holes were dug, Lex turned the soil with our mantis so that we could make the rocks lie flat.

 We then went back through and leveled out each rock and backfilled the hole around the stone.  This space around the stone will eventually fill in with grass.    We opted to leave the grass in between to maintain some of our lawn.  You could rip out a larger area/strip of grass, lay down stones and plant a ground cover in between them.  But for us, we felt it would be easier to maintain our yard if we could mow right over them.

This is what the finished project looked like today.

 

 

 

The pathway extends all the way to the clean drive.

We also did some fun & quick finishing touch projects today.  I put this old barnwood bench in one of the front gardens.  It has a few stones leading up to it.  I figure I can put a pot of flowers on top of it.

 Remember last weekend when I mentioned that I had scored some cool items from Big Johns in Joliet...

We hung the windows today, and will get the doors in place tomorrow.  It should give the entryway an instant face lift 

On a side note, a complete stranger drove past our house today and stopped to compliment us.  She said that she drives past our house everyday and just wanted to tell us how nice it looked.  

 It is NICE to hear this, as we have never been that  house.  

For the past four years, we had the dirt mound and broken down suburban in our driveway.  

Tomorrow we will finish off the tree rings in the front, and hang the "side lights" on either side of our front door.

But for today, I will end this entry with a very cute picture of one of our resident birds.

When she got off their nest today, I couldn't help but sneak a peek.    There are at least 2 bright blue eggs in the nest.