putting down roots.

the front of our house has been something that we haven't made "us" yet... we've lived here for almost two years and both springs that have passed we've neglected the front and planted veggies in the back. we've decorated the inside to make our house a home but this spring we decided it was finally time to make our entrance say welcome! 

we went to lowe's and picked up quite a few plants and shrubs and flowers. i didn't realize how fun this could be. figuring out which plants need what amount of light and envisioning our landscape plan in our head while we filled two big carts with beautiful things totally made my weekend. and we stayed under budget, so that's always a plus. 

our stairs decided to crack so first we had to fix that. (yawn) so while jesse did that, i took those two pots that are two different colors with dead flowers and spray painted them turquoise and planted some new flowers. spray painting is perfect for my immediate gratification fix. 10 minutes and those things looked amazing. so this is the before... zoe says: oh no! we have the worst yard on the street.

she was very serious about this job.

digging in the ground feels so good. bare feet in the earth.


jesse is a little landscape genius. he laid everything out and asked what i thought. i didn't want to change anything. so we started digging...

in our new "forest!"



everything in... steps still drying and need to be finished and repainted. more on that later. (ps i am not a landscape photographer, clearly)



yay! see the pots? and happy zoe? l.o.v.e. which leads me to the next day... when zoe realized that she needed to water her plants. this is my new favorite thing. she slowly fills up her watering can with a little bit of water and wants to do one plant at a time. she takes it seriously and is so satisfied when she's done.







there was something so meditative about feeling the cold soil on our hands and digging and brushing aside and planting and watering and positioning and digging some more. and i must mention, i didn't realize how much squatting i was doing until i woke up the next morning and felt like i ran a marathon. so it's also a work out. our vegetable garden is next and i think after this weekend, gardening has become a new love...

"everything that slows us down and forces patience, everything that sets us back into the slow circles of nature, is a help. gardening is an instrument of grace."