It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like SPRING!

Well, it was beginning to look a lot like Spring...  Just three days after we received a foot of snow, it was over 60 degrees out! BEAUTIFUL weather! 

I'm definitely an outside person.  I grew up on a farm and was always outside walking through the field between our house and my grandparents' house, playing in the yard, gathering eggs from the barn, and helping pick green beans from the garden.  My husband is exactly the opposite.  While I've discovered he enjoys gardening, he loves video games, computers, TV, basically anything that uses electricity and is inside.  So, when we had the gorgeous weather after immediately experiencing probably our biggest snowstorm of the season, I was itching to get out of the house and DO something. 

I coerced Derek into sitting outside with me while I gathered some sticks and leaves from the yard. Most of our flowers are beginning to grow and I want to try to improve my green thumb this year (a list of summer goals to follow in a couple of posts from now).  After picking up around our front yard, I managed to convince Derek to help with the flower garden along the side of the house.  I always wish it looked a little better but never really knew what to do about it.  Since we live in town so close to the road, there's always trash floating into our yard.  We rent our house, so we're stuck with wanting to improve the look without really spending any money on it. 

The flower garden along the side of the house has been taken over by Vinca and Ivy.  Don't get me wrong, I think that Vinca and Ivy can be very pretty, but it. is. everywhere.  Last year we pulled a little bit out in order to start a (very small) vegetable garden, but it has come back in full force.  With the hope of expanding our vegetable garden this year, we pulled out everything--all of the Vinca, and we even cut down the Ivy that had been growing up the side of our house.  We worked for over two hours and just enjoyed spending the evening outside in the warm weather.

I'm writing this in hopes that in a few months I'll be able to post successful garden pictures.  I always forget to take "before" pictures, but here's what it looks like "after".  Happy Gardening!

Those trash bags are FULL of Vinca & Ivy.  Crazy.  The area where the trash bags are up to the daffodils will be our future (tiny) garden!