Weekend Warriors

My favorite product of the weekend.

Over the weekend Mr. Pihl and I slathered ourselves in sunscreen, applied a liberal mist of bug spray, and conquered our weed-ridden planters.  Our motive was split between our desire to improve our home's curb appeal and our need to have the yard finished in time for my parent's upcoming visit in July.

SO EXCITED for them to visit, by the way!

Anyhow, we weeded.  We worked the earth.  We invested in an obscene amount of landscaping cloth.  And we have the bug bites to prove it (days later).


It's silly, but at the conclusion of our work Sunday night I was overcome with an absurd feeling of pride and accomplishment.  It was the first moment that I've actually felt like a homeowner.

So, while you may see the below photos and think they're nothing extraordinary in the realm of weekend DIY projects, to me they are.

They're my pride and joy.  Especially if I can keep them alive!

I finally got our front stoop cleaned up after the beating it took in last week's wind storm.  I also planted that precious little tree, which makes my heart happy.

Up until this weekend only half of our front planters were done.  You can see it in this picture from last autumn:

See?  Right side only.

Here's our attempt at creating balance:

I don't have an "after" of the entire front yard because I'm an airhead.

Other projects included the rear of the house (HA!  Rear.  Sorry.  I have the maturity of a fourth grader):

More specifically, these:

Much better than a mound of dirt and infinite weeds, yes?

YES.

I also dug out the narrow planter (read: dirt and weeds) on the side of our house, liberally applied mulch, and decided to create a brick "home" for our garbage cans because I felt the need to physically punish myself by carrying 40+ bricks out from behind our garage.

Blurry photos are my specialty.  If you're in doubt, refer to THIS post.

I think I broke my spleen.

On a whim I picked up this pink fellow.

Isn't he cute?  I'm excited about this guy.  I've always liked hydrangeas, and I'm hoping that my talent for killing plants does NOT transfer its attention to our new addition.

So lovely.  And innocent.  And unaware of the dangers it may or may not face.

Lastly, we are now the proud parents of these beauties:

Three tomato plants, three green bell peppers, two jalapenos, nine sweet potatoes, one very aggressive cucumber, basil, mint (for mojitos!), and one strawberry plant I planted as an experiment.

I'll let you know when the verdict is in.

In the meantime, I'm ready for a mojito.