I hope you all had a great weekend!!  Sorry I’ve kept you guys hanging here.  I’m getting ready to start a new job so my mind has been preoccupied with that.

Anyway, I showed you our plan to remove the azalea bushes on the fence line and replace them with two huge ligustrum trees.  (Hop to the link to see the before pics!)   I can’t tell you in words how much we love our new trees!  We can’t see the house next door any longer (and they can’t see us!)   Privacy rocks.   Check ‘em out!

They are the perfect living screen, and they look so pretty.  It was kind of interesting watching them transport the ligustrum to our house.  They had to take down one 8 ft section of fence to get them in the backyard.   Sorry I don’t have pictures to capture that part!  Here is the new view right when we step out onto the deck….

Notice the fence line on the left- that gives you an idea of their size!

As opposed to the previous view:

So. Much. Better.  They ripped out the azalea bushes for us.  We wanted as much height as we could get with the tress, so instead of digging two holes, they simply plopped them on the ground, then cut the 200 gal buckets off, and finally brought in a dump truck of fill dirt to create a berm around them.   It worked perfectly!

All this dirt was brought in to create the berm around the base to give them max height!

The leaves on ligustrum trees are wax-like and the little flowers they produce are sweet too.

After the trees were in, we bought one pallet of St. Augustine sod and got to work laying it out.  There were 180 pieces on the pallet, and it covered more ground than we’d hoped (about 500 sq. ft!)  St. Augustine grass needs a lot of sun, so we layed it accordingly.  The fact that we love to play cornhole at our cookouts may or may not have had something to do with how the sod was layed.  Either way, we are loving our new grass and trees!

You can't tell in this pic but the lemon tree is full of lemons right now!

Instant Grassification! 

Disclaimer:  When I say “we” layed sod, I really mean John layed it all out while I stood holding the hose and watered everything.  He said our system worked perfectly.  Yes, yes honey you do all the dirty work and I’ll stand there and pretend I’m working hard.  :)

Our backyard is becoming our little paradise!  Wouldn’t it be sweet to replace that lattice with some cable railing?  Le sigh.  Maybe one day.  In the meantime, we’re enjoying the steps we’ve taken to create a backyard we love.

After all that hard work the man of the house needed a beer.

love him!!

Questions or thoughts on the landscaping changes???  On another note, Happy Mother’s Day to Mom-  you’re the best in the world!!