My Recent Yard Project

This little area is beside our driveway just past a row of large trees. The trees are ours, but these bushes and beyond are on our neighbor's property. We have a great relationship with our neighbors and they would be the first to tell you that they do not have the time or energy for yard work. Here's the thing--they do not see this area of their yard at all. It is a distance from their house and no windows look over it. But from my house, it is directly in the line of our living room windows and what everyone can see when they drive up to our house. Last summer Jeremy and I started mowing this area. As I mowed I started dreaming up what could be done to make it have more curb appeal. With a little positive talk from my two Moms and permission from our neighbors, I've been working out here as much as the weather will let me. This is the before picture--wildly overgrown bushes, years of leaves and sticks on the ground and a row of volunteer oak trees that are at least 8 feet tall.

 I had some good helpers in the children and Jeremy when the weekend allowed. I would work for an hour or two at a time. It's amazing what can be accomplished by sticking with a project even for just an hour or so at a time. The bushes got more unruly as I moved down the line! It turned out to be good motivation to do the easiest bushes first. I knocked out the first one really quickly and couldn't wait to tackle the next.

The other weekend Jeremy got the chainsaw out and went down the line of volunteer trees. (We did save the tree that Josiah built his fort around.) This is a decent before picture from one end.

Where the trees have grown used to be a huge bed of iris. There are still iris that come up, but they don't bloom any more. This area still has a lot of junk brush in it and leaves.

 Here 3 of the 4 bushes have been trimmed and the whole area is so much more open.

This is the last of the 4 bushes--a daunting one!

After removing the leaves and all of the baby (and a few large ones) forsythias that started from branches reaching the ground and rooting, this is what I was left with!

And after:

Josiah is a little sad that his fort is so exposed now. I think when the leaves grow on the trees it will feel a little better to him. The fort definitely felt like it was in the woods before. I'm quite proud of my/our accomplishment here. There is a large bed of stuff just in the front of the bushes that I want to clear out. It's really bad...I'm not sure that I can actually do it so for next little while I'm going to focus on our actual yard!