before and after

The unexpected part of our home purchase was the large garden/Chinese rock garden that was unearthed once the snow melted in the Spring.  Large meaning 38 feet by about 15 feet!  And by the time that we moved in late July, the weeds were nearly 6 feet tall.  It was not pretty!  We've spent a lot of time on that piece of land.

Ryan was very gracious and helped chop down weeds and haul them away to the dump for us.

 Nathan turned over the soil in the garden area.

 After much debate, we decided to buy a used play set which dad helped us pick up using a rented flatbed trailer. 

 Dad and Nathan spent one whole Saturday morning clearing out the white rock and bringing that away.

 Ryan, Dad and Nathan spent another couple of hours putting the play set back together in our yard.  And we just hired some guys to put sod down around it.  We did leave a rectangular garden area.  (We're looking forward to having a garden next summer. :)

 We still need to put a canopy on the play set and put sand in the sandbox, but it looks 100 times better already!  And today Aniah and Eden were at our house for the afternoon and the kids played in the backyard for a long time.  I love having a play set!!!  And I'm so thankful that we aren't going to be known as "the house with the white rock in the backyard" anymore.

THANK YOU to all the guys who helped with this project!!!  I think our neighbors are appreciative as well.  :)