We’ve already made a couple of pretty big improvements. One was building our gorgeous back shed (which could stand to be organized, but that’s a post for another day!)
Here was the before:
And the after!
The second was updating our patio space to include our chevron privacy wall and some repurposed lawn furniture.
But now, we’re into the ‘actually dealing with the yard’ phase. When we moved into our house, the yard (both front and back) was an absolute JUNGLE. The previous owners really liked plants and trees. Like lots and LOTS of plants and trees. And you know how they say ‘sometimes you can have too much of a good thing’? Well, that was the case.
Four years later and we are still uncovering gorgeous plants, flowering shrubs and perennials that were choked out due to being planted too close together or in the wrong sunlight conditions. Not to mention the lawn. Four years later and we are still seeding it and repairing the areas that were just allowed to weed over.
To be honest, this year, we aren’t sure what we’ll be physically capable of doing on our own. Yard work is A LOT of grunt work and with LB – we want to be able to enjoy our short summer and not always be hauling wheelbarrows and cutting branches. When we first moved in, we hired a landscape company to help us assess some larger jobs and we had them help us save a flowering apple tree out front. Professional landscapers know what your yard needs – from how to properly fertilize the grass (to help get rid of those weeds!!), to how to properly prune special trees and large branches.
TruGreen is a company in Canada that provides these kinds of services and they’ll do it for you on an ongoing basis. (Hello! I want my lawn to look like this!!!)
To be honest, I have complained a fair bit about the ‘jungle’ that is our yard, but the gorgeous parts are GORGEOUS. Part of me (okay, all of me) is afraid to go it alone with some of the shrubs we want to save. Take for instance, my peony plant – uncovered after a wind storm knocked down a low hanging branch on our maple tree (not even kidding). 
Or our enormous rhododendron. It was being choked out by a cedar hedge that we tore out, but now, it’s got a big bald spot and some odd orange spots on the leaves. 
I don’t want to just be a Google-master and try to figure out how to save these glorious plants on my own. TruGreen experts are just that – experts. Guys – the man who founded the company is a PhD and a research scientist! That is definitely someone I’d trust with my blooms, grass and the upkeep of our yard. I’m also hoping to better understand how to care for our flowering weigela. Some appear to be very old and are growing in odd directions. I definitely love them and feel like pro advice could help me make them even more pretty. (Btw – you can just log onto TruGreen.ca to request a quote for your yard.)
Lastly, we live about 50 metres from the Atlantic Ocean. That means our soil is very, very different than the soil even 10 kilometres inland. Are there other shrubs we should be planting instead? I don’t know!
Gardening is hard. At least for me it is! #BlackThumbForLife? Gah.
So many questions and so many projects. I guess at the end of it, this year is going to be about planning, gathering information and consulting the pros so that we make the best decisions for our yard, our plants and us!
Because I’d love to do more of this: 
And Mr. Bud, I know….wants to do more of this: 
Can’t wait for spring!! How do you plan to tackle your yard work? Have you ever hired a pro to come in and help?
-E
xoxo
This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of TruGreen,ca. The opinions and text are all mine.
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