Elves paid me a visit.

When I was at work all day Friday, some incredibly helpful, generous, and talented elves {aka my parents} paid my house a visit. Or maybe I should call them worker-bees since they kicked some major curb appeal butt {and have an affection for bees.}  If you can remember, Eugene, his sister, & I pulled out the bushes lining the front of our house a week or so ago. This got the ball rolling.

My mom, who loves to garden & is ah-mazing at it {see here}, spoiled me rotten by giving us eight different varieties of plants, plus my dad threw in some deep black mulch, to use at our house. Not only did they give us all that, but they also showed up and did the dirty work! {Can you say wondrous thing times a million?!}

My dad brought his tiller, they leveled the area in the front yard where we removed the grown-over flower bed and stones as well as the huge ruts left in our yard from our roofing company.

Now it looks like this. Praise the Lord for being able to mow the front yard without getting whiplash from all the bumps! Now we just need to throw out some grass seed & we’re in business. Better Homes & Garden, here we come! Haha. ;)

Then they planted the new plants in a great lay-out in front of our house & covered it with mulch. Look at our pretty landscaping! Plus, in two years, all the plants will be full grown, much larger, and blooming too. Oh, happy day!

For those of you with a green thumb, or at least interested in plants, here’s the eight varieties of plants my mom picked – all perfect for part shade, all perennials.

And here’s the breakdown…

Front of the house

• Loosestrife ‘Firecracker’
• Delphinium ‘Cherry Blossom’
• Dwarf Lady’s Mantle
• Goat’s beard
• Cranesbill ‘Vision Violet’
• Patriot Hosta
• Day Lillies

Side of the house {no pics, sorry}

• Spotted Dead Nettle ‘Pink Pewter’
• Lamb’s Ear {existing}
• Lemon Balm {existing}
• To add: Echinacea

Back of the house {which had nothing but grass}

• Forget-Me-Not ‘Bluesylva’
• Ostrich Ferns

I’m over-the-moon with the generosity from my parents. I love love love the landscaping {so much}! We’ve certainly come a long way – dead bush, ugly bushes, leaves everywhere, spotty grass, stoned & overgrown flower bed in the middle of the yard…

To this pretty pic…

A few more before & afters…

 

Much better…

Seriously, I have the best elves, worker bees, parents ever!