It has been a fun and messy time taking out our crazy landscaping to get the yard ready for new look. The hubby hurt his hand and since they are very important to him as an artist, we took a few weeks off and ended up hiring some help in pulling out the old plants.
The yard is looking pretty bare right now so here is a glimpse at what we have to work with now. In this corner of the yard we pulled out a large tree that was not in a great place for our long term goals, which include a pool. We also had a ton of random shrubs along the fence taken out.
This back corner is hardly shown in my posts because we don’t use it yet. We actually have a chain link fence separating this part of the yard while we work on it. We pulled out a ton of shrubs and three star fruit trees. The trees were lovely and had great fruit but were growing right on our septic tank. Not really a great location for those not wanting to replace their septic tank early. Like our hurricane shutters scattered about? We live in Florida and they are just a way of life once summer hits. We have been going over our stash to make sure we have the right amount once the season starts.
This front corner was completely overgrown as well and now has been trimmed down quite a bit. See the pile of mulch bags? Those should have been part of this post about the truth about our to do list …they have been there for a very long time. We will be planting a hedge along the fence get some more privacy and hopefully a tree and other flowering plants.
I’d love to get the hedge planted soon so these little guys can’t see the street anymore. They are naughty little terriers who bark their heads off at any dog or person that walks down the block. For my own sanity, I need them to have less of a view. Good thing they are cute!
This is part of the front of the house with a scaled down landscaping as well. We will be planting flowers and small trees along the front, and hopefully we will planting a climbing ivy along the front.
After all the hard work, we have another enormous pile of clippings ready for the county to pick up. We really are starting with an almost completely clean slate and I’m so excited to come to life with plants we actually like, are native to South Florida and can withstand our crazy weather.
If you missed the previous post to with some of the before photos check it out here. This is one of those slow moving and not so fun house projects but I know when it is all said and done we will be happy we finally tackled it. I’ll just keep reminding myself that when we are sweating away, covered in dirt in 90 degree weather for the next few months. 
how cute are the dogs! seriously! mine bark, too- one of the benefits of now living out in the country a bit is that it doesn’t really matter when they bark. thank goodness!
Hi, Annie
Its a lot of work to do yard work, especially in Florida.
I live in central Florida and I know how hard it is.
Vanessa
Looks like you are moving forward. Great job on all the hard work. I swear gardening is way harder than it looks. I long for the day when I can just pull the occasional weed and be done.