"what the..."

Mike decided on the title of this post- while wrestling with an unruly shrub in the back yard today...after I decided 4 pm on a slightly rainy Saturday was the perfect time to make a mess of the yard. I figured seeing some progress would make me feel better about all of the unfinished/unfunded projects scattered about the house. Digging up the yard=free and that made me happy. 

Here is what we started with:    

Yard in all its shrubby glory

Lauren said it reminded her of a "grandma" yard with its cheap stone "patio" and boring yet out of control greenery. Being that the last owner was a sweet 80+ year old woman she was right on. 

I really hated to take the life of living plants but they weren't healthy and were filled with bugs. So we pruned our little hearts out and Mike easily dug out the two shrubs on the left. 

"the boss" 

The strangely shaped shrubs in the back really didn't want to come out. Mike and Joel spent a good amount of time trying to wrangle the roots out of the ground but "the boss" was far too stubborn and the Phillies game was calling our names so we gave up for the day. 

the aftermath 

We made some progress which feels really good and I'm already sketching up ideas for a sweet little garden and dreaming of barbeque's and bonfires.