I have the best hubby in the world (and this post contains photo proof of it!!)

This last weekend we put in a garden - yay finally!  I love it so much!

I have to share what an amazing husband I have.  On Saturday morning, we got up and I said, "I want to put in a garden today!"  He replied, "Well my list is spray the lawn, edge the lawn, fix the cat house, fix the playhouse, etc., etc., etc."

I frowned a little cause well there is a timing you HAVE TO FOLLOW for a garden.  I looked at him and said, "Yes but a garden ..."

2 hours later we were leaving Home Depot with the necessary items and he was staking out the ground where the garden would go.  I told ya...I have the best hubby ever!

Now it is NOT complete.  We still have a couple things left to do.  We had to start the garden by cleaning up the weed err I mean flower bed surrounding the tree.  I forgot to get a before picture but it looked something like this:

If you look closely in the corner where the fence is you can see the tree.  About 4 feet all around that was the "flower bed" surrounded with rocks.

 

 

 

 

I didn't get a close up of the tree on the East side of our backyard before we started this all; HOWEVER, I did get one of the "flower bed" for the tree on the West side of our backyard.  They flower beds looked about the same so here is a picture for you to have a close up of what it looked like!

It was a rock and weed bed...not a flower bed.

So we got to work.  We started by clearing out the weed bed.  I worked on that with the girls for a while and Ben started in on the measuring out for the flower garden.  Our yard has a very slight down slant from front to back, so Ben being the awesome fixer/builder started out with figuring out the level ground.  Here is some pictures of the progression:

After figuring out what was level...then the real work started.  We took all the grass from where the garden was going to be and transplanted it over to where the tree is!  Several times I tried to jump on the flat shovel to cut a nice straight line and help get the grass up.  My efforts were futile.  I did do some with the spade shovel but then the edge wasn't nice and straight.  Honestly, Ben did most of the digging up of grass.  I did help with the relaying over by the tree.

After helping clear around the tree, we told the girls we had a surprise for them.  It was HOT!  The surprise was a slip and slide.  We put it in the back yard and let the girls slip 'n slide with fun while we continued to work on the yard.  The girls ended up having lots of friends join them and we had a backyard filled with about 10 girls having water balloon fights and slip 'n sliding away!  Definitely fun!!!

So much fun!

Lyse on her turn

Katy's turn

It was "cold" at first!

This was at the first when only a few were here...the numbers doubled by the end!

Please note the playhouse!  See it has been sitting there next to the patio since we moved in.  While we were discussing the garden Ben said, "I have the perfect location for the playhouse!"  As we were excavating the ground for the garden, we started the excavation next to it for the playhouse!  It is the perfect place.  Ben is so wonderful!!!

The playhouse is tilted a little.  We are going to have to level out the bricks underneath the playhouse again.  We knew it would settle once we set the playhouse there, so now we know what we need to do and and how much more sand we need to put under it. 

The garden still has a little work as well.  We need to put in a weed barrier then bring in some topsoil and miracle grow so we can start planting - YAY!

So as you can see, this last Saturday (which was VERY hot) was also very productive.  We have a lot more to do but we have gotten a lot done. 

A huge THANK YOU!!!  to Ben.  I could not have done it without him and he was amazing to do this for me.  It means so much to me!  He truly sacrificed.  I love you babe!!!

P.S.  I will give you a month before I get started on the other "weed/rock" garden bed around the other tree.  I have to save up cause that is the PERFECT place for that fire pit I have been wanting ;)