garden updates

it's been a long time since my last post! whoops! life is so much more hectic with two kids running around, getting into stuff and needing food and all that. and hubby and i have been busy with projects, both work and around the house. one of the projects that hubs undertook on his own was an update and facelift of our side garden. this is the place in our yard that gets the best sun, so we like planting there, but there used to be a huge hemlock there that we had cut down right after we moved in. and there are still huge roots that weave through the ground in that area. and the space was just a sloped, haggard mess. so hubby drew up some plans and we consulted and then he got to work. he made a 3-tiered graduated garden and installed an irrigation system. he did all the digging and stacking and filling and hauling all by himself. i am so impressed. i have to say, it looks so good, hubby did such good work! and then he planted potatoes, tomatoes, squashes, herbs, some flowers and flowering bushes like lilac (my fave), lettuces, strawberries, carrots. maybe some others that i am forgetting. there is another section to the left of this area that we want to clear out--it's overgrown with blackberries, ivy and some other viny plants--and do the same thing with a graduated bed. wooohoooo! it's so great to get some of these projects done in our yard. it makes the place feel so homey and more and more that it's ours.

so, here is kind of the before picture, i don't have a picture of what this area looked like before we cut the tree and hubby cleared out all of the overgrowth, but after we did that, we just kind of plopped down some pots and hubby built planters, but the ground was so uneven and rooty:

before

here is a picture of the progress:

and then after the wall was finished and hubby started filling in the area with dirt:

and after:

with the irrigation installed:

so anyway, one project down, a bunch more to go!  haha.  it really is never ending when you are a home owner.  we'd like to put a patio in the back corner of the back yard and build a fire pit, but we'll see if we can do that this summer or later on.  hopefully these things will grow now that the sun decided to peek out behind the clouds for more than 5 minutes!  but on days where it's not raining, sometimes we all go outside in the yard and weed, or spread the extra dirt around, plant stuff, clean up the garden beds, etc, and it's really nice to all be out there together, even though the little one is constantly shoving dirt and rocks in her mouth, haha.