Some Dirt of Our Own...

Last summer when we started house shopping (thank goodness that is one thing not on the list this summer! too much stress!) one of the things that was really important to Justin and I was that the house have a yard.  Living in the condo, while there were times the maintenance free life was nice (aka we didn't have to shovel the snow!) we both really desired to have some dirt of our own... we wanted to be able to plant things - and hopefully not kill them - I wanted colorful flowers, Justin wanted a lawn to mow....

The house we fell in love with was, for the most part, a blank slate when it came to the yard.  The front  yard had grass and a few shrubs in the flower bed and the back yard was a big pile of possibility :)  Within weeks of moving in, we laid sod in the back and Justin couldn't wait to mow all the grass in the spring.  And plans were made for a flowerbed against the back deck.

Fast forward to May... the weather is finally getting nice and the garden centers around town look amazing with all the color and greenery...and I have itchy feet :)  Neither of us had ever planted flowers or really had a yard to take care of so we were total rookies.  We asked lots of questions of our family in particular who have the greenthumbs we hoped to inherit and went shopping.

We've learned a few things in the two months we've been the proud owners of our grass & flowerbeds:
1. A field mouse who takes up residence under your deck is great entertainment for your dog who watches as the little varmint gorges itself on your growing flowers.
{side note: we caught the mouse and all the plants that had literally been almost entirely eaten have started to grow back and are looking great :) }
2. We've figured out which seed & fertilizer works best to fill in those empty spots you find when the snow melts... like where the rabbits tried to dig under the snow all winter...
3. It's a wonderful treat when your family shares their gardens with you!  The tiger lilies and irises that my dad gave us are doing amazing in the front and the Virginia Creeper Sandy gave us is showing great signs of life and I am anxious to see it continue to grow!
4. Spending time on a Saturday morning weeding is actually relaxing and not nearly as tedious as I may have thought at one point in my life...

I can't wait to see our yard take shape in the coming years...Justin has done an amazing job with our lawn {I'm allowed to be biased but I think it's the nicest grass I've ever seen}...so far we haven't killed anything...maybe we did inherit the greenthumbs after all...

(sorry for the poor quality of the photos...I just quick snapped these with my iphone)

{left}The delphinium that had been nearly eaten to the ground is almost ready to flower
{right} For some reason the mouse didn't like the daisies...not complaining lol!  Still the trap sits...just call it insurance ;)

The Virginia Creeper... so excited to see how this grows!

The back flowerbed that Justin built this spring...
it's a little hard to see the plants through the fence but I'm very excited at how everything here has rebounded 

The pots on the back deck

The front flowerbed... love how green everything is!

The Tiger Lilies {left} and the Irises {right} have settled right in in their new home...
I can't wait for the Tiger Lilies to bloom!

{left} This shrub was already planted when we moved in - we wondered if it would even grow but it just keeps getting bigger and the little white flowers are a new addition this week!
{right} The colorful pots that sit on the front step as you walk up to our door