Before & After: The last corner of our yard

After we had all the original work done in our backyard, there was one little part that was left untouched. It's the sideyard on the side of our house that no one really sees. Well, except for the neighbors who share that property line. Oops.

You can't see it from the street, and it was just a low priority at the time. But now that the weather is much more cooperative (read: everything we planted wasn't going to die immediately), it was time to get in there and do something about it.

Just like the backyard, there was a lot of junk buried over there. And by "junk," I mean pea gravel, concrete blocks, paving stones, stumps and random trash. Then there were your regular garden-variety weeds, overgrowth and dead trees.  #classy
 

BEFORE

(That's the view out of our master-bedroom window, by the way.) Once Alex (the guy who mows our lawn) went to work on it, this is what we were left with:

AFTER

He cleared it all out, taking down the dead tree and bushes, planted two new trees, laid pinestraw and moved the pea gravel that had been so unceremoniously dumped back there over to one side to make a path from the end of the driveway to the backyard.

BEFORE

AFTER

Alex also trimmed the limbs of the tree at the front edge of the driveway so that the kids can use the basketball goal. Which you probably didn't even notice in the first picture.

BEFORE

AFTER

Before Alex even LEFT that afternoon -- because he's amazing and he did all of this in one day -- our neighbor came over to thank us. He said that he had asked the previous owners several times about taking that dead tree down, even offering to pay for half of it, and they'd never done anything about it. (He said it was right on the property line, which is why he never just took it down himself -- but to me and Alex, it looked like it was on our side, which is why I had it taken down without consulting him first.)

At any rate, I'm happy to have this done, and happy that our neighbors are pleased with the results.

Now, back to unpacking boxes.

YES, THERE ARE STILL MORE.