The landscaping has begun!

After several delays, our landscaping project has finally begun. Between not knowing who to hire to do the work, our general ignorance about what needed to be done, and needing to wait for our guy to finish his other projects, it's been nearly four months since we moved in to our house. Clearly time to work on the yard!

The main delay on our end was knowing that we needed some serious grading done, but not having the knowledge or equipment to do so. So the first step today was working on the grade, and removing our impressive collection of weeds. I should explain that we were advised to leave the weeds until we got started so we need what kind of "extra-curricular growth" we would be fighting. 

Here are a few photos of the day's progress.

BEFORE:

The front yard. Looks like we have some greenery, but it's all weeds.

Our impressive thistle garden.

The original rock pile, site of many of D's photos.

Close up of the rock pile. Note the giant thistle.

Right side of the house. Quite a slope from the neighbors.

Backyard. Not nearly as many thistles!

Left side of the house with the egress window.

DURING:

It didn't take long to clean the front yard. Across the street is our guy's last project.

Bob cat v. weeds = no competition. Can you see D watching from the front porch?

We had to move a lot of dirt from the back to the front.

It was a hopping place, with our landscaper, housekeeper and six houseguests!

END OF DAY 1:

The side yard is much more level, and the rocks have all been moved.

Front yard is cleared and level.

Left side of the house. The egress window has been dug out more, the old drain pipe removed because it was above the window, and the rocks moved. This side of the house will have our tulip rock garden.

The back yard has been started.

Our homework for this weekend is come up with a wishlist for what kind of plants, shrubs, and trees we'd like to plant. Thank God for Pinterest!