It has been unseasonably warm here for the last few days – it’s hard to remember that it’s April when it’s 83 degrees during the day and warm at night! We’ve taken advantage of the nice weather to get some spring yardwork done!

I worked for quite a while putting mulch under the kids’ play area, which I am thrilled to say is finally done! When we moved in 2.5 years ago this was weedy flower bed with a decaying stump that had been made into a “water feature” that didn’t have a pump anymore, ie: a mosquito farm. The creative people who made this “water feature” also had tons of rocks cemented and placed around the decaying stump – NP earned some kind of award for getting that out of there and the ground leveled! We’ve been working on this little corner for so long, I can’t believe it’s actually a usable space now! (and who needs a sandbox when you have mulch to dig in?) ;)

It seemed fitting to recycle our old recycling bin organizer (we have curbside recylcling now and didn’t need it) to store the kids’ outside toys in. I’m glad to have a place to keep all those balls, bubble toys, chalk, water toys, etc. I’m planning to keep our sprinkler and some of my small gardening tools in the top so I can have them close at hand when we go out to play.

I can’t fully explain to you how much better our flower beds look from when we first moved in! Apparently somewhere back the line someone tried to landscape… but between sloppy work and later neglect, they weren’t in good shape! We really don’t know anything about gardening but are learning bit by bit (and our yard is almost all shade, which is challenging) – we’ve inherited lots of plants from neighbors and family, have moved everything around so much that the plants are probably dizzy, have weeded and worked and edged (NP made that awesome rock border out of rocks from the water feature!), and finally – we have mulched. Two yards of mulch later, things are looking up! I’m excited to see how this bed will be looking in another month or so!

Speaking of reusing rocks, I’ve really been wanting a bird bath (remember I have my budding birding addiction), but I’ve been bummed that the ones I have seen are either ugly or too expensive. Enter my talented husband, who built this beautiful bird bath for me out of more extra stone laying around and a glass dish that used to be under a flower pot! I love it, and the birds seem to approve, too!

What have you been tackling this week?