Gardeners - Who knew?

So.....when we moved in, we had the worst yard on the block. :-)

We tried to remedy that last year by killing off weeds (turns out, that meant half of our yard!), re-seeding, and cutting down four dead trees. When winter ended this year, that left us with this view of the backyard.

So we spent all of our April weekends landscaping!

Closer view of the left half of the yard.... the tiny new tree nearest the fence is an althea - related to the hibiscus, it will have big purple blooms later this summer (hopefully!). In the center of the mulched patch is also a new magnolia - how southern! Other plants include abelias and phlox.

Around our pine, we planted more phlox and 7 pink azaleas, which bloomed earlier this spring. In the patch to the right, there are two hydrangeas; behind that a rhodadendron.

Once we got started, we were having so much fun! We took to the mailbox - petunias in front, and daylilies in back. The vine climbing the mailbox post is a mandevilla - it also has red blossoms (right now, many buds about to bloom).

Yay for spring!