gardening teamwork

So, my friend and my niece came over to help me with my gardening this weekend - my friend yesterday and my niece today.  I've got two parties coming up and wanted to get the yard in order. I'm so happy they came over, because it gave me to kick I needed to get out there and do it.  I was doing good on my own for awhile, but once the rain started, the weeds came out in full force; I just felt overwhelmed every time I looked at it.  But they came over and we knocked most of it out over the last two days. My niece will be back again tomorrow to finish up.

During my first stab at gardening I was told by several people that I didn't have a prayer of controlling weeds unless I put down mulch.  But in order to do that, I would have to pull out all the weeds and grass first, then mulch.  That's the part that made me feel defeated before I even started:  having to pull out all the grass that had come in.  But my niece was a machine and got it all cleared out (she does landscaping as part of her job, so that helps!).

What I found interesting was that yesterday my friend and I spotted a hummingbird, the first one I've seen since moving to this house a year ago, and today I found a garden plaque buried in the weeds, presumably left behind by the previous owners, which had hummingbirds on it.  So, what's interesting about that? My mom loved hummingbirds and gardening. I felt like maybe she was watching over us while we were gardening.  Hopefully she approves!  I took the plaque and put it in the garden, up where all the new mulch is.

Here are the results.  Looks great! As you can see, my husband got the pond fountain in.  I've also had lots of nice plants come in.