First, a shot of the old front yard - check out the "grass" - it was all weeds! and we hated our shrubs, but loved the alberta spruces.  sad that the Henry Lauder tree was so dead, but it had to go.  We saved a ton of the curly-que branches tho, for future arrangements and decoration.

and ... there it went - one of the landscape guys cutting it down:

another landscape guy ripping out the old "lawn":

The new sod was finally laid and the alberta spruce trees were replanted in the backyard.  So here's our front yard as of tonight - with only a couple potted porch plants for our landscaping so far:

We did already buy half of what we're going to plant (shasta daisies, coreopsis, anabell hydrangea, two spiral alberta spruce topiaries) but have to get the rest later.  for now, my mom planted these pretties for us (i found the pots at Garden Ridge for only $15 each!):

Here is a shot of where we will be planting a spiral topiary and then one gold barberry bush and one burgundy barberry bush and then either some sort of weeping ornamental tree or a small japanese maple with the hydrangea bush on the side of the porch:

And here is the bay window side where we will plant the other spiral topiary and the shasta daisies, coreopsis and gaillardia blanket flowers and boxwoods:

The before shot of the tall & nasty weeds in the backyard (where the spruce trees are now):

And all the weeds in the rosebush area:

Here is a halfway thru shot of weeding that same area - to left I had more to go, to the right I had just finished:



My back yard as of tonight (all filled in, except the rose bushes which will need time since we cut them back so much last fall).  To the right of the spruce is: black-eyed susan (not yet bloomed), a rare type of rosebush, two butterfly bushes and then the five other rosebushes:

The daylilies at the garage (though these ones I plan to pull out in the Fall and replace w/the Stella d'Oro variety, these are just too big - I'm going to replant them behind the privacy fence, on the alley side to pretty up the alley for Harry's Army Surplus and not have to weed back there):

A close-up of the rose bush that I didn't realize was a rose bush:



Close ups of the rose bushes at various times as they've been blooming:

Picture of my dining room with the Buddha Lotus painting finally hung up over the bar.  The table is does not usually have a leaf in and table cloth on, we just had people over for dinner last night:

So!  That's the scoop ... that's what has been keeping me busy all summer thus far.  Well, part of what has kept me busy.  :)

Happy (almost) Fourth of July everybody!!!  xo