I keep meaning to mention how much we're enjoying our firepit! We bought this at Target on clearance for, like, $45 I think? Rather than constantly having to throw Duraflames in it, though, Paul hooked it into the gas line when he hooked up our natural gas barbecue. Whenever we want to have a fire, we just turn the little red knob and hold out the barbecue lighter. And like our old school lava rocks, there? Stolen from the landscaping outside Colorado Boulevard Hooters. Hey, we're nothing if not resourceful.

By the way, I'm a little bitter about the fact that my husband couldn't pan just a smidge to the left and get MEEEEE in the picture with my kids, nephew, and sister - instead you get to see my delightful mother-in-law.

I don't get it. Our backyard looks great! Okay, okay. Not GREAT. It's slightly patchy, and there are a couple of spots that are almost dead, thanks to the baby pool. But it looks a thousand times better than the front yard, which resembles mange.

We water it! We fertilized! Still, it's half dead and full of dandelions. Booo. I spent all of naptime yesterday pulling weeds and pruning my shrubs, so it looks better, but it still looks like total crap.

I'm really hoping with a little more TLC, it'll start looking like the other (beautiful) lawns on our street, and I can look back at this blog post and say, "Look how far you've come, little lawn!"

Awww, what a sad little bouquet, huh? I guess I need to wait another year or so before I can plan on cutting pieces of my lilac to keep in vases in my kitchen. The stems were so short, I had to use a juice glass. Hee!

My kitchen smells like Bath & Body Works, though!

Actually, that's not entirely fair. I have five shrubs in front - a lilac, a Russian sage, and three others that I can't remember the name of. One of them we call the Taco Bell bush because it seems like you always see them in the landscaping at places like that. Which is why I picked it! I mean, not for the Taco Bell credibility (heh) but because they're low maintenance. Drought tolerant.

Anyway. My point was, I have five shrubs, and they're all in decent shape. A few of them looked pretty haggard up until yesterday, when I pruned the heck out of them. They're looking MUCH better now. And this lilac is my favorite of the group! This is the first year it's had lots of blooms on it. I've had it three years now, and last year it bloomed for the first time, but it was pretty pitiful looking. This year, it's pretty. Small, but pretty.

We have one of the most pitiful lawns on our whole street. It makes me sad to see it out there, patchy, barely green, dotted with dandelions - especially compared to the lush, thick, deep green lawns of most of our neighbors.

I see them out there, fertilizing and mowing all the time. They had their sprinklers on a month and a half ago. We just turned ours on for the first time on Sunday. Hey, our yard might look like hell, but at least we're conserving water! Right? Sigh.

What do we need to do to have a nice lawn? We can't spend forever and a day on it, either. That whole "two sets of twins" thing throws a wrench in our plans, every time. How often do you need to fertilize? And do you water before or after? Can we get away with only watering a few days a week? We are in a drought area, with mandatory water restrictions. I'm not sure how our neighbors are getting away with the irrigation they've got going on, unless the restrictions don't go into place until June or something.

Help?

Labels: landscaping, lawn