See, here's what happened:

I was gonna post photos of the results of all my hard gardening work overhauling my ailing flowerbeds, but then I realized I hadn't taken any BEFORE pictures, so the "After" photos are a wee bit underwhelming.

The only bed that I did manage to capture in its "Before" state was this little one around an oak tree in my back yard:

All that is are weeds and about 2 years worth of dead leaves. This little bed gets about and equal mix of shade and sun throughout the day, so I had a lot of options when it came to what to plant there. I went with some Aster and Red Salvia. I'm wanting some trouble free plants that will be lovely, but still look a bit wild when they grow. I planted them, spread some mulch, and voila:
Better, no? Simple, but better.


The only other thing I'm willing to post a photo of at this point are my two mandevillia (sp?) vines I planted in the corner bed in the back (also completely overrun with weeds before I did anything with it). They're tiny but already blooming. The Geej picked these out at the nursery, and calls them "her plants."

Speaking of The Geej, I have a word to the wise. When your not-yet-three year old tells you that, yes, she wiped her bottom well after dropping a duece, you'd probably better just go ahead and do a "safety wipe" for her just to be sure. Trust me on this.