see yew later!

these are the yews:

 

i hated them. tuck did, too. clearly.

i think they weren't properly pruned or cared for for a very long time, so that's why they were all naked at the bottom and only green on top.  

there was no saving them.

billys to the rescue!

a few weeks ago dad billy and husband billy got rid of those suckers for me!

bye yews!

but, it left the front looking a little lacking:

so a couple weeks ago, billy went at it again!

i told him i thought it would be nice if we mulched that area and lined it with stone.

after a little investigating, billy discovered that there already were stones there... they were just buried!  so he dug them up. 

yeah, he's pretty awesome.

don't worry, tuck made sure he did it right.

eventually we want to plant something along here that will stay green all year long.  

we've thought about holly, or english boxwoods.  

but we haven't decided yet, and new shrubs are going to be a little pricey, so we decided to put some pretty annuals down in the meantime to keep things looking bright and fresh.

we also decided on using black mulch, which we really love!

and the bright yellow flowers we picked were only $2 each!

 

isn't he the best gardener ever?

don't worry, i didn't just snap pictures while billy was busy working.  i did some planting myself!

i painted some of my old pots with chalkboard paint and i love the way they turned out!  

so when i was at the farmers market i picked up some herbs and tomato plants.  

eventually we'll have a real garden at the house, but in the meantime i thought this little potted garden turned out sweet! :)

having the yews gone has really opened up the light to our first floor windows now too, and our dining room and great room are much brighter and sunnier!  we're really enjoying it!