Gardening Dummies

We have 2 acres of property at our new home. One of our priciest purchases thusfar is this mega riding mower that Marc has to pull out weekly to keep our lawn under control. We've never had much "lawn and garden" experience so our learning curve has been a bit steep. Poor Marc has wacked his head trying to mow around the Evergreens (no permanent damage, but scratch on the head that lead to more blood than one would think necessary), slipped around in the ditches, mowed down the dogwood trees we planted, and most recently broke the blade on the mower (we've had it less than 2 months;). We've struggled to somehow keep on top of things, but fear we are certainly "those" neighbors with the unkempt lawn. We have more dandelions than one could possible imagine- even after paying through the nose for a landscaping company to come and spray. In the process we learned that it sometimes takes 6 applications to "take care" of the problem....meanwhile everyone around us has golf course lookin' grass. Our other "issue" is the "flower beds"; we have two that were obviously well landscaped at one time. The problem is we had NO idea what was in them until things started to pop up. We've had so much rain, however, that nothing just popped up. Before we knew it everything has begun to run into each other and it is a mess. Was it in pristine condition last year? Or has it been neglected for a while? We don't even know what everything is! (To be honest, we hardly know what ANYTHING IS;)

Today we began to tackle the problem. One thing we DO know for sure- neither of us really enjoys this whole gardening thing. Poor Marc has the majority of the work to do; I am doing what I can but I am 38 weeks pregnant with ankles the size of an elephant. I feel like crap and therefore am pretty useless- though I did my best to help out. I have a little gardening book and after reading NOW know we were suppose to trim back stuff as soon as it made an appearance...or in the fall (which we can't help since we didn't even conceive living here;). We are digging and pulling weeds and trimming back stuff galore and we didn't even finish one of the beds today. Sure- we did make a little progress and I am HAPPY that we have found two gorgeous peonies amongst the mess- but one does have to wonder when and if we'll finish. We have to- we do, but it is a task and a half and next year I am thinking we pay a landscaper to dig it all up and put in sod. Or just pay a landscaping service to take over....

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to look out and see our huge lawn and the nature that surrounds us, but boy OH boy are we learning how much work it takes to maintain or gain that beauty. We now know both of us hate this work...not sure what we can do about that, but next summer I won't have the pregnancy excuse, so I have a feeling we'll be doing a whole lot of rock, paper, scissoring to see whose turn it is to weed and mow....or maybe we'll just compromise some convictions and play the lottery- hoping to win enough to hire a gardner. Either way- we need the three day weekend to finish this "project" and then are just keeping our fingers cross that we don't mess up anything to badly. Thank goodness Marc's step dad will be here after the baby and can help direct us further. We're pretty pitiful....

Finally...

Marc was finally able to get some pictures uploaded on the computer. We don't have as many as we'd like to about our adventures over the past month; our precious little boy grabbed the camera recently and tried to run away with it. Marc went after him and Phin threw it- all the while thinking it was a hilarious game!! The lenses shattered. Lovely! The silver lining is the little warranty from Best Buy that we always purchase. For the second time in our marriage- one of these warranties has MORE than paid for itself. PHEW!

Anywho- here are a few pic's of my adorable children.


Phineas is obsessed with the light in the fridge and thusfar has foiled any lock we've tried...He is so cute, but what a booger!

Happily, disobedient....hopefully not a foreshadowing of a lifelong habit.

Our family on Easter.

Ava and Phin on Easter with Marc's mom and step-dad. (We could NOT NOT NOT have done this move without them!)

Our "new" basement ready for the Easter egg hunt..(this part of the house still is quite barren as it is the bottom of our priority list;)

And their off...

Phin thinks this is GREAT and he doesn't even know there is CANDY inside, yet;)

Notice the tool in Phin's hand- he SOO wanted to help Papa assemble the playset.

This has already provided hours of joy and fun.

We have some issues with our new yard. After a good rain, we awoke to "fields of gold". We have been waiting for a landscape company to come spray. In the mean time- every one around us has yard that look like golf courses and we are the neighbors with dandelions EVERYWHERE- Ava is delighted, however;)

Here are a few photos since our move: