Our Saturday Project

Surprise! We aren't dead or anything. Wow, it's been nine months since I wrote a post for this blog. My apologies. So what have we done around the house since then? Well, not much which is why I haven't posted. We started a few projects but didn't finish any of them yet. The reason I'm writing today is that we spent the day freshening up our landscaping and I've got some delectable before and after shots for you, as well as gratuitous chicken glamour shots because you know you want them. Here are the three flower beds we worked on before (Well, kind of before. I did not take photos of the horrible amount of weeds that were in here before I pulled them this morning. Some of them were almost as tall as me. Yikes.)

We went to a local nursery called Harb's Oasis because I had a coupon and because I like that place even though it's a bit of a drive. We came home with a Jeep full of plants.

These lucky guys got to ride up front with me. 

We got Coleus for the two beds around the Crepe Myrtles, and Coleus, Hostas, and Agapanthus for the big bed in front of our dining room window on the side of the house. We also picked up two kinds of basil and two kinds of mint to plant in the planters that sit on our patio railing.

 These are the planters I'm talking about.

 Planting the Basil.

Mint.

Basil.

Of course, while we were on the patio working on the planters/taking pictures, the chickens came over to see what we were doing.

First, we placed the pots where we wanted the plants to go. I couldn't really place the coleus because it came in six packs.

Harley is convinced there are squirrels in this tree whether there are or not.

We've been saving up newspapers and sales ads for a while to use as a weed blocker in the landscaping beds. 

 We didn't put cat litter in the flowerbed. We were just using that container for mulch.

Close up of the newspapery goodness.

Are you ready for the final results? Okay, drumroll please...ta da!

There wasn't quite enough mulch to completely cover the newspapers.

 We didn't do newspaper in the smaller beds because the plants were closer together.

So there you have it. I think that's a pretty good day's work, don't you?

Update: I woke up Sunday with the backs of my thighs just KILLING ME. I realized that spending the day in the garden basically means you are doing squats all day long. Owww.