Well! Since I talked yesterday about my container gardening I thought that it was probably worth updating about the landscaping I’m doing in the front yard too. I have honestly wanted to redo the front for years but have been too overwhelmed or exhausted to spend much time out there. But this is the year I finally decided to change all that! And it started with me bringing home those pansies I felt were doomed to die under my “care.” 😂

It was humble beginnings but it was a start! I had set up those bricks the year we moved in and placed the pots I’m now using for container gardening behind them. The idea was good in theory but ugly in practice. And it just got more and more depressing every month that passed, especially when I gave up even planting anything in them. I was encouraged to try pansies because they plant them in the front of the neighborhood and they seem to do well without much tending. Still — I had doubts and didn’t expect them to live more than a week. Izzy told me they just needed some hugs and love. 😂 But unfortunately that’s never worked for me in the past. 😉 But I amended the soil a bit hastily (we have very heavy clay and rock), planted, and hoped for the best.

I also tested out laying some white rock between the planter boxes my father built for me a few years back. As you can see, I never did much with them, which I also regret. But that’s what happens when you have three kids in two years. 😛 I really wanted a way to walk easily between the boxes and figured rock was the best bet. I read that pea gravel was slippery underfoot so I went with a large white granite.

I also got some hanging baskets finally put up! Only to learn as they weeks passed that they were actually more difficult to keep alive than the plants in the ground. 😂 But they look pretty here so appreciate it!

Miraculously that pansies did really really well! I still can’t believe how they’re holding up. But they were rocking it a few weeks later here where I had laid some more stone and decided to complete a second tier of bricks above it. I really need to go back and make the lower ones more even (as this picture clearly shows) but I’ve got so many projects that one is getting backburnered. 😉

Korey also got me another bird feeder for the front yard, which made me so unbelievably happy. I absolutely love birds and we had so many in the back that I missed feeding. (More things that go by the wayside when you have two infants!) There is nothing like getting to watch them out the playroom window now. 😁 I also started planting in my boxes out front, including trying to resurrect a lavender plant that has been here with me since the beginning. He is doing very well, just so you know. 😉

I got stuck on the second tier of bricks for a long time because Home Depot didn’t have them in. I honestly thought they had stopped carrying them until I checked the website and it said there were 999 of them in stock. So I went back intent on raising hell but there they were! The problem isn’t even the color, they are literally smaller than apparently any other bricks like this. So I’m happy to have found them and finished that bit! I’m amending the soil there to plant succulents. 😊

I also found some awesome dividers on my brick quest! I finally got them all laid out and hammered in. I just need to finish filling in the rocks, filling in the mulch, and then I intend to amend the soil along the side of the house, transplant the neglected and pitiful azalea bushes that are there now, and plant roses. Not the finicky kind. I’m not sure exactly what they’re called but I know them when I see them. I’m going to have to find out! But they’re at the front of the neighborhood too as well as in many people’s yards so I hope they’ll make it! 😂

It still feels like I have a LOT of work to do, and honestly I’m losing a little bit of steam on it as I near the “end” of my landscaping plans for the year, but I’m really thrilled with what I’ve accomplished so far and I intend to stick it out to the end. Fingers crossed!!