Lemme, lemme, upgrade you

OK, Beyonce wasn't singing about our backyard, but Thursday night it took a leap forward. You all know how much I enjoy ripping things out of the backyard; luckily for us and our yard, Jeff loves planting things in the yard. He can fill in where I tear out, a perfect match of skills! Jeff got some plants on sale at a local garden store. Normally, October in Rochester is not the time to be planting things, but it has been so warm, for a few buck a pop, he figured what the heck.

He planted 2 rose bushed along the back fence. The are hard to see now, but hopefully, we can update you with prettier pictures in the spring/summer.

Here is a close up since the bushes are hard to see.

I was digging space for a lilac bush Jeff had bought in the garden bed that runs along the side of his blue car. And once I started I couldn't stop. There was so much grassy/weed type material, it just had to got. The last thing I wanted was our new little plants to be engulfed by large weeds. As I uncovered the garden bed, I noticed the rock lining bowed out into the yard. This seems like a wast of space, since all  it did was interfere with mowing and leave more space for weeds to grow in the bed. Two hostas live in this outcropping, and though I have nothing against hostas, we have more than any 10th of an acre ever needs. They were a small sacrifice to pay. I had a half bag of grass seed in the garden caddy, so I made the executive decision to grow our yard.

 After an hour and a half of me ripping things out and Jeff adding some new plants and me optimistically throwing down grass seed this is what we had (with some before shots for comparison):

See the realigned rock border compared to the dirt. Its only a foot or 2, but it makes a big difference! 

Before

After

 The finale is the original before and after. The yard feels so much bigger not having the plants closing in around us!

 It makes me want to do a little dance! I can't wait to see how it looks next spring! Not to rush winter, I am looking forward to getting some use out of the fireplace!