Homeownership Update...

I thought there would be more of these.  When everyone said everything will take longer than you planned, I laughed.  Surely, that won't be us.

But alas, we're still painting.  Spring has caught up to us, and the garden won't wait until we're done.

It's okay though, Matt and I both enjoy being in the yard.  It should tell you something that most of our Christmas presents from the Meyer parents and the Shields parents revolved around the garden:

So the last few weekends have been spent turning this:

Into this:

It's okay if you can't see a difference.  I didn't take a very good "before" picture, and it's still clearly a work in progress.  But here's a little bit of what we've been doing.

Pulling Ivy

I'm cheating, because you saw this picture last week.  But look where Matt's sitting.  Now look at the picture above.  It's ALL GONE.  Now the challenge is to keep it gone.

Pruning

If you've never pruned before, it takes some nerves.  Because you're turning this:

Into this:

And this:

Into this:

Yikes.  But after consulting my New Western Garden Book (thanks mom and dad!) and reassurance from my mother in law, I'm pretty sure I did the right thing.

If I didn't, I'll know in a few weeks when all my neighbors have blooming yards and I still have sticks.  Fingers crossed!