Holy Hail!

An hour ago the kiddos were outside in the backyard. I was doing the dishes in the kitchen watching from the window. I didn't have to keep Jacks from climbing all over the dishwasher door.... and it was quiet.  It was AWESOME.

Now, ice balls are falling from the black sky, thunder is rumbling and the wind is blowing...hard.  Must be spring in Utah.  Give it 20 minutes, it'll change.

Hopefully all this moisture will bring some life to our drab, brown landscaping. We bought this house from 2 green thumbs who had planted a TON of stuff that needed maintenance.  Unfortunately, I have absolutely no clue how to maintain such things, or even that such things need maintenance.

So fast forward a year later, the summer Jacks was born, things outside were getting a little out of order. But like I said, newborn Jack and 2 year old Kaitlyn turned out to be quite a hand full, rendering me helpless to do anything about it.

Fast forward to the following spring, by this time everything was grossly overgrown. Aside from the grass that was being  mowed regularly, things were looking out of control.

I just couldn't stand it any longer.

Without knowing what I was even doing, with pruning shears we inherited, I set out to take care of business. I planned to do just a little trimming.Well, it turned into an hour project that did not end well for the shrubs or me. I hacked everything down so far that it looked just awful. This is how I work, if a little is good, a LOT is better.

I guess I expected new branches, blooms and leaves to just burst out in a few days. Well that didn't happen. After like 2 weeks, I was convinced it was all dead and was not coming back. It looked completely dreadful. Patience is not my strong suit and much to my desperation, I proclaimed that everything must go, including the ground cover. (Markham was really excited) Quite a bit of work, we quickly learned. I swear we removed 100+ lbs of earth.

Later, we went to the nursery and pretended to know what we were doing.

Long story short, I spent the entire summer planting and re-planting different plants and shrubs. Didn't have much luck at all.....  and here we are again.

This time I consulted Google on proper pruning techniques before I attempted the back yard. I really didn't want to ruin it back there too. I did something right, I do in fact see blooms!

However I still need to plant all kinds of stuff in the front that will: a) survive my poor care. b) need little or no maintenance. c) flourish in crappy soil.  d) be in full sun ALL day, and e) look really really good early spring to late fall.

It's a problem.

Any suggestions??  Besides tearing it all out and just planting grass? I have thought about that too.