Spring Is Here!

Okay, it's official-- spring is here! The daffodils are out, and, of course, I couldn't resist picking a few for our dining room.

All of the blooms and buds are definitely putting a smile to my face, and I'm even more thrilled that all of this good weather will mean we get even more time to work on the house. Joan came for a long weekend visit this past weekend, so we enjoyed lots of time outdoors, enjoying the gorgeous weather and tackling yard work.

Joan helped us identify the many bushes and plants in our yard.

Since this is our first spring in the house, we weren't exactly sure what all might bloom. We have three main types of bushes: azaleas, boxwoods, and hollies.

Azaleas in the backyard:

Most of them seem to be planted in a bit of a hodgepodge manner, and the bushes in the front yard overwhelm the house and don't take advantage of the big window in the living room that overlooks the yard. One of our goals is to transform this:

into a flower bed that complements the window rather than hiding it. It looks like this weekend will be filled with bush removal (though we're hoping to replant the boxwoods along the fence as well as some of the azaleas).

Joan also got us started on our spring planting, so we have a nice punch of color at the windows at the back of the house.

The strawberry pot is filled with herbs and colorful flowers.

We pulled out a lot of weeds out of the flowerbed and plan on relocating the azaleas to another location in the yard (not sure exactly where yet). I think we're wanting to keep this area more of a flower bed / herb garden.
Even the stump was brightened with flowers (including a dwarf gardenia) and greenery.

A palm fern takes the place of a planter that used to hold weeds.

We also did some major pruning on this tree that separates our house from our neighbors, and even learned from our neighbor that this is a cherry wood tree. The bark, now revealed after the extensive pruning, is a deep reddish-brown and very smooth.

In fact, this is a cherry wood tree in our neighbor's yard.

We have four along the driveway, and they all look so much better now they're pruned.

And we're still on a mission to trap (well, kill) the mole that is taking over our front yard.

(I'll keep you posted as to whether we're successful.)