The Satisfaction of a Weekend Project

There's nothing more motivating that a completed weekend project. Since our Ohio house sat unoccupied for 2 years it's not surprising that our landscaping was a bit overgrown.  Okay, that's an understatement.  It looked like a vacant lot.  But not anymore!  Don't get me wrong, there's still a TON to do yet, but I'm overjoyed at the flowerbed around our gas-lamp.  Here's what it used to look like:

This is overgrown lamb's ear.  It's extremely invasive and has made its way into the lawn in various places.  It was a pain in the butt to dig up but when we had some nice weather back in early April I got all of it dug out and put down some Roundup to kill the roots.  

Fast forward to this weekend and I finally couldn't stand the clumps of clay & dirt mixed with new weeds that had started to grow.  It needed its spring makeover now.  Saturday morning was spent digging up the new weeds and using a twist tiller to break up the soil.  I had quite the little helper when it came to watering down the dirt to soften it up.  Simon was also quite the trooper in staying close in the yard while I worked.  After lunch, it was a family trip to Home Depot to pick up some soil, mulch, and edging stones.  While Simon napped Jeff and I mixed in the soil, laid down landscaping fabric, and spread out the mulch.  On Sunday morning, I laid down the edging stones.  Here's what it looked like then:

After a family picnic lunch in the park, I went to Petitti's Garden Center while Simon napped and picked up some Silver Mound, Sweet William, and Neon Star Dianthus.  Here is the finished project!

There's still some finishing touches that I need to figure out but I'm very pleased with how it turned out.  I especially like the stones, they turned out really well.  Here's to more weekend gardening projects!