Landscaping Project: Before

The summer projects have started! For Mother's Day, Keith took me to the garden center and we picked out some plants for the backyard, right behind the house. It's always been a wasteland; I don't know if it's too shady or that we've been working out there, but it's just packed dirt. Nothing grows there!

When we first moved to this house in June 2006, there was REALLY nothing in the backyard:

Just some patchy grass and a small flower garden next to the garage. But behind the house: nothing.

In August 2007, Keith and my Dad built the deck:

Of course, it looked a little odd because it wasn't actually attached to the house at all. Between the deck and the house is the air conditioner, so it wasn't even really an option to put it against the house. So last summer, we added on a patio that connected the deck to the house. It really helped tie everything together.

At that point, the major building portion of backyard landscaping was complete. Everything we'd really talked about wanting was done. It was just the total lack of plantscape that we needed to focus on.

So this past weekend, we did! Here's the "before" pictures. You can get an idea of how it's going to look, because we had placed some of the plants around the deck, in their future homes:



And of course, you'll have to wait until tomorrow for the "after" pictures, because I like the suspense and anticipation.