The Front Yard

Tom & I have big ideas for our little house. In our jobs we work with other peoples' money and have large crews working on projects. We seem to forget that we don't have the same resources when it comes to our own house. Tom also likes to start projects with no deadline of finishing these projects. One of these many projects has been our front yard. Our plans are to build a small retaining wall along the property line, build a covered patio along the front of the house, with a flower bed in front of the patio, add some lighting in the yard, a water fountain, a brick mail box, a stamped concrete driveway, and a slate door step. Tom started working on cutting back the hill for the retaining wall about a year ago. Since then we have not watered, mowed, or weeded the front yard because it was all going to get ripped out, right? Well, my neighbor, Wayne tells me that the other neighbors started sending around a petition to sign to get us to start working on our yard. Wayne assured me that he was holding out on signing the petition for two reasons: 1) because he didn't want to hurt our feelings, and 2) because he was afraid he'd have to help work on our yard. Well, despite not signing the petition, Wayne has helped us work on our yard. He has taught me everything I know about sprinklers. My mom must have signed the petition or at least heard of the petition because a couple of weeks ago she was also here helping with the yard. While she was here we took several trips to Home Depot buying sprinklers, grass seed, and soil topper. We even rented the roto-tiller! She had to leave before the grass seed was actually planted though. And if it weren't for Wayne, work on the front yard might have stopped there but Wayne has not let me stop. So, yesterday we finally planted the grass seed! I know it doesn't look like much now, but it will! Tom and I were so tired after planting the grass seed that we went inside at about 7 pm calling it a day. Unfortunately, we still had piles of weeds, dirt, and rocks on the sidewalk left to clean up. However, the trash cans were full for the week and we were out of energy. Then, at about 8 pm Wayne showed up with his trash can and 3 other neighbors' trash cans to help encourage me to finish the job. My neighbor, Bob, even came out to encourage me to finish. Bob also lent his pitch fork for scooping up the grass and dirt, hose attachment for spraying off the driveway, and flash light because by the time we finished it was completely dark outside. I've already watered the new lawn seed twice today. It looks like the neighbors are going to have to rip up their petition. Thanks to all of those who helped get the yard to this point. Special thanks to my mom and Wayne for pushing us to finish planting the lawn this year!Notice the hill cut back, the nice level yard, the painted box for the sprinkler valves, the flagstone at the sprinkler box, and the new hose pot.Logan helping Tom start the project of cutting back the hill about a year ago.Wayne admiring our work last night after we finished.