Yard in Spring!

It's been a while since I've yard update.... but that doesn't mean things haven't been happening out there!  I wish I could take credit for the amazing blooms that have popped up, but alas, that was two owners ago.  She was quite the gardener, or so the neighbors say.  Thank gosh they are annuals so we get to keep enjoying their beauty!

We have our first rose of Spring.  According to the worn, faded tag in the ground it is Enfant de France....a very fragrant rose.  I hate the smell of rose perfume because it gives me a headache, but not this beauty.  The smell is so full-bodied: vanilla-ey, musky, sweet... DIVINE.  Today I sprayed some anti bug and fungus stuff on our bushes because I noticed a few of the leaves had some rust on them.  Roses require maintenance, but they are sure pretty.

And then there are the peonies in the back yard!  They haven't started to bloom, yet, and I'm really hoping I don't miss them when we are out of town.  Peonies are my favorite flowers of all time!  I am seriously so excited to have fresh flowers in the house :)  Ahhhhhh!

Then there are these I have no idea flowers... 

Charlie and I also mulched the back flower bed.  Everything is so lush and green and totally revived itself and came back to life!  (I don't know if you can see, but there is a Crepe Myrtle back there, too!  It will flower beautifully all summer!)

We LOVE our landscaping, and all the surprises have been so fun.  But then there is the grass.  Let's back that picture up:

Honestly, the back yard isn't so bad.  We are on a fertilizing and weed-spray regimen, and there is some patching that needs to be done (the "off" green spots are all weeds)...probably about 25-30% of the back yard.  But it is fixable.  We are cutting the grass on a really high setting to help weed-out (literally) and let the grass take over.  We will do some digging and overseeding in the fall (the best time in our region).... listen to how legit I'm sounding!  ;)

But then there is the front yard.  Oh, Lord have mercy.

This wouldn't be so bad if the homes on our street didn't have IMMACULATE lawns.  I mean like flawlessly perfect, not even a twig on the grass.  It's insane.  I feel like the failure yard of the street, but there is nothing we can really do about it at this point in the season and with having put pre-emergent down.  The yard hasn't been properly maintained in years and needs and over-haul.  As you can see, there is grass, but there is lots of brown (and a lot of the green you see are just weeds)...

Despite that our yard is clearly the suckiest one, we can take solace in the fact that as we improve it, we get to take complete credit.  Ah, hard work.

But don't worry, we haven't been all business.  Charlie is finally starting to feel/act more like himself after his surgery.  Good enough that we had some friends over last night for dinner... they treated!  It was so nice!  We had high hopes of having a fire pit, but the high winds (tornado producing in some parts of NC!) prevented that from happening.  So we used the microwave.  Nom, Nom.  Love me some s'mores!