Green Thumb?

or maybe a black thumb...?

This Saturday Ben and I decided to tackle landscaping. Since moving into our new house we have pretty much neglected our yard with the exception of cutting the grass. You know, pulling weeds, pruning bushes, and knowing what plants go where has just never been something I have had to learn, therefore I didn't (I'm not really sure why though... because my mom is an incredible horticulture-ist)!!! I can't say that Ben and I did any research or got any advice to try and learn, but decided to give it a go anyway!

We loaded up 2 buggies at Home Depot with flowers of all kinds, a few azalea bushes, lots of vegetable and herb plants, and a few tools to do the job. Now, not only did we decide to plant these things, but we also "transplanted" a few plants from one part of our yard to another.... with no research done, we're just praying they live!

This is the backyard where there used to be 2 jasmine vines... and that's it (except for that tiny tree that resembles a skeleton)!!!! We dug up both jasmine vines and put them in the back 2 corners of our huge, square, non-tree-filled, grassy backyard. See it in the back right of the picture below? that's one of them. (and by the way, we haven't tackled that huge "flower bed"/ugly falling apart stone wall with weeds growing in the middle.... save it for another weekend!)

Then we raked up all the wood chips (while low maintenance, there are quite ugly) and planted 4 azalea bushes along the back wall. Then I planted purple and pink petunias. In the back right corner is a Sago (sp?) Palm... There were 2 in our front yard, flanking the walkway up to our front door. Only problem was that one was dead. So we dug up the dead one and chunked it, and transplanted the other to the backyard. So here's that area's finished product!

Next we planted a few flowers by our side door... I think that I should have bought a few more, it's looking kinda weak...

OK, so you know I mentioned a few veggie and herb plants.... We had to find a really sunny spot that wasn't in the backyard because Harper would surely eat them up! So in the "front/side yard" there was a big empty space behind some existing azaleas... so we started planting and it ended up being red clay rather than soil, and being as inexperienced as Ben and I are here, we planted them anyway! So maybe some TLC will keep them alive! Here are our 3 different kinds of tomato plants, 2 kinds of jalapenos, oregano, cilantro, basil, rosemary, and parsley.

Well, that's it. Next weekend we plan on putting down pine straw in all of the beds (it will definitely make it look more finished off). We are also going to get that black edging stuff so that our front yard beds won't blend in with our grass.. and so we can take down that stone/cinder block wall around that tree in the back yard i mentioned earlier up in the post, and have that finished off.

I'm kinda laughing at myself now because it looks so funny and DEFINITELY not done by a professional. We had SUCH a good day together though, feeling all husband and wife-like, with our puppy eating a whole bunch of dirt along the way.