A Gardener's Work is Never Done

Or in my case, a gardener's work is just beginning.  When we bought our house 3 1/2 years ago, the yard was it's best feature.  I hadn't even seen the inside of the house, and I knew this was going to be our home.  We ended up doing a lot of construction to the house, but that's an entirely different post (or five!).  Here are some pictures of our wonderful 1/2 acre 'jungle' as it came to be known.

These were taken in June of 2006, and almost the entire perimeter of the yard was overgrown with everything that had ever been planted there 40 years ago.  Thus 'the jungle'.  After taking an entire day to clear about a 10'x10' area with a chain saw, we decided to hire someone else to clear it out.  We've come a long way since then.  Here are pictures of what it looks like now.

Notice the area to the right of the pine trees on the right side of the picture.  This is where I envisioned a sitting area.  That is my purpose for this post.  I am finally going to plant something there!  I wanted to post a before picture to track my progress.  I have immersed myself in flower garden/landscaping books, and I'm ready to take the plunge.  My perfectionism has kept me from doing anything until now.  For some reason, I think it has to be perfect.  But in reality, if it doesn't work, it can be changed. 
Here is what I am starting with.

I just spent the entire day removing the mulch and weed fabric that my husband so lovingly placed there last year.  I still have more mulch to remove (left foreground), but ran out of time and energy today.  You can see the pile of mulch I removed...it's behind the far pine tree right in the middle.  I still need to prepare the soil for planting, and with my schedule, that probably won't happen until this weekend.  But at least I started!

Now, if I could just get all the weeds pulled!

Stay tuned.  I will post pictures of my progress!

K