Spring Trimming

Spring is here. Although, I think it still can't quite make up it's mind. Most days have been nice, so I won't do much complaining. With it being spring, all the yard work that needs to be done comes to the forefront of my mind. 

When we moved in, the house looked like this.

8 months later it looked like this:

Notice what I did there? Used the same picture. The only difference in the front of our house has been our front door, no eagle, and cars in our driveway...that belong to us.

The real problem that I have had with our front yard is our bushes. They are out of control. Like Miley Cyrus in plant form.

The tree on the far right is gigantic! Pictures don't do this mammoth thing justice. The plant in the middle, while smaller, blocked out our downstairs window completely. Plus, it also came about 3-4 feet out onto our grass.

Blake and I decided one evening to "trim" our bushes. In hopes of maybe giving them a nice little cut, and making them cute.

Blake was in charge of trimming the one in front of the windows. Cutting across the front of the bush took about 20 minutes and filled up our garbage can. Plus, we were left with this brown monstrosity.

I would like to pretend that my plant fared better....Um...No.

It was like Edward Scissor Hands attacked my plant and left no survivors.

Awful.

Lest you think that Blake and I are impulsive pruners, we had talked about removing some of the plants in our front yard for awhile. Some plants blocked light, some were just to overgrown, and others made it so that we couldn't see our kids riding their bikes while sitting on our patio.

We weighed our options. We could remove them by renting a chain saw, finding a truck to load all the plants into, and then paying to dispose of it all....or we could hire someone.

We chose to hire.

It was a two man job, and the total time was around 3 hours for removing 4 bushes.

Seeing the progress was exciting...and a little nerve wracking.

I was a little concerned about our grass, and what was going to be left to clean up.

I fretted for nothing. They did a great job. The front of our house looks a lot more open, and the inside is leaps and bounds more bright. The kids weren't sure about it. But when it comes to change they are normally the hardest to budge.

Here are some comparison shots to help you get the gist.

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Now we just have to get to the rest of the yard. 

Still hoping to: plant a garden, plant some bushes, make our grass greener, seal our patio, paint garage door....the list goes on and on.