Landscaping

Both my mom and James' dad LOVE to garden and do yard work.  James' dad spends as many as 12 hours a day doing yard work, landscaping and gardening.  He never seems to tire of it.  My mom gets giddy when seed catalogues come in the mail.  She and my dad plants gardens that could feed entire 3rd world countries each summer.
But somehow, neither James nor I inherited any green thumb genes.  To put it lightly, we HATE yard work.  Which is why our yard has been the eyesore of the neighborhood this summer.  Our neighbors have come by frequently to ask "What do you plan to do with that 2 foot high area of weeds?"  "When do you think you'll get rid of your Christmas tree?"  Finally, they stopped talking to us all together.

But on the day that THIS happened, we felt our social standing in our community was being restored.  Neighbors who hadn't spoken to us in months were now vigorously waving as they drove by as if to say, "We're so happy that you're doing something for your yard!."
First step was to remove our old flagstone walkway. The part of it that was closest to the house was completely gone due to our house reconstruction and had been replaced by some wobbly pieces of wood.

We used Dalto's Landscaping.  We can't say enough good about them.  Dalto was amazing to work with.

The Brazilian workers called their boss and said, "You don't need to come and check our work.  We already have many bosses who are watching everything we do."
When swimming lessons had been cancelled for the day the boys were relieved.  "Oh good, then we can just stay and watch the trucks."

The boys also helped to drive the trucks.
They loved to work with our new Brazilian friends.  They each grabbed rakes and shovels out of the garage and helped.  They carried paving stones; they brought our workers ice cream sandwiches.

The area you're seeing here is where our tallest "weeds" used to live.

They widened out the walkway.

Laid these paving stones.

Here is a patch of unsightly weeds on the other side of the porch.

Here are the bushes, trees, and flowers the landscapers chose to put in.

The finished walkway.

Our plants in their new home, surrounded by loving mulch!

Dalto's guys added a little paving stone section between the driveway and the porch stairs.

Remember that weedy area?  Well, now it is filled in with mulch.  We couldn't afford to put in all of the trees and bushes that Dalto recommended, but it's a start, and we can add the others later.

The view to the front door is now pillared on either side by these evergreens.   Soren is working on an idea to put hidden cameras in the trees as an anti-theft/safety measure.

BEFORE:

Here is the house in the early spring, before the weeds had a chance to grow.

AFTER:

J.B. tries on the new walkway. All of the brown patches are newly seeded lawn.  Logan planted those sunflowers on the left last summer, and these ones came back all on their own.
Thank you Dalto for making us so happy!  We love our new yard!