Tada!

This was a HUGE project. Kyle worked lots of extra hours so we could do this and we got a GREAT bid from a company called extreme landscaping design and we are so happy with their work. I have been planting and replanting SO many different trees and bushes in my mind for months, and months and months in anticipation for this day. I guess since we have never owned a yard before this was a huge and exciting deal for me. Even though the planning was frustrating at times, since I really have NO clue about planting, it was a ton of fun too! I know about different soils, what plants get sunburned, what plants do well in shade vs. sun. I am no expert but I have learned a lot from all my trips to the nurseries and internet surfing.
I did ignore all the things I read and heard about quaking aspens and decided to have 2 planted anyways. I just couldn't stop looking at them in all the yards and parks around our area. If you can fall in love with a tree, quaking aspens are my tree and I love them. Maybe all my love for them will protect them from disease. Anyways, you really just care about the pictures so here you go! But please note that these pictures do not do this yard justice. Our yard was a disgrace before--we even got notice from our HOA but we had this landscaping planned for weeks (bad weather just got in the way) so we ignored the HOA and decided to surprise them with this on their next visit:)

BEFORE
(I guess I should have taken a before shot with all our weeds and dead bushes and plants but Kyle had already pulled them all out to prepare)

AFTER
(ignore the plants in pots that haven't been planted yet...and no, they aren't going there)

I'm getting three big rocks to put by these trees.

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

(view from deck)
Huge hill on the side of our yard---no useable space so we decided to do some retaining walls.

AFTER
Two levels--bottom level we are planting some fruit trees and strawberries and top level we are putting in some square foot garden boxes.

(We still have a few things to plant and they left us lots of extra top soil and mulch to finish a few other projects we have in mind.)

We still have some clean up to do and they ran out of rock so during our next phase of our landscaping plans (fire pit and sandbox hopefully in a couple of months) they are coming back to add some bigger flatter rocks on some parts and plug up some bigger holes. But I'm excited to plant some rock plants in some of those other holes in the rock wall...I think it will look awesome with a little bit of green peeking through. We LOVE our yard and have been dreaming about this all year and are so thrilled with the outcome!

And here are some DURING pictures. It was neat to see our yard transformed in one day!