Spring Symphony

We've had to give our lawn a very bad haircut to take care of some evil crab grass, but the pretty trees are back!  The other day I was admiring our handy work (not the gouges in the lawn) and thought it was high time we did a photo journey over the last few years.  

We started with some dirt (not to be confused with soil):

We attended a few landscaping classes and I bought (and read) books on flowers and trees.  It helped that I was working on Temple Square - I got to know what was blooming when and etc.  I decided to do an oval of grass surrounded by flower beds.  Then I had Brian do 95% of the work.  Here's the same view three and a half years later:

I found a sketchbook the other day that had this layout drawn a dozen or so times with all kinds of different plantings.  We chose four Prairiefire Crabapple trees - three on the east side and one on the west.  One book advised me to arrange all plantings (trees and flowers and even rocks) in a triangle.  Our landscaping teacher also told us that everything should lead to the front door in an inviting way - as though the front door is a stage.  Most of our flowers are perennials and we lined the east side by the neighbor's driveway with bridal veil bushes.  Here's a shot from Spring 2008:

I love tulips.  I'm willing to do a lot of work to have a yard full of tulips. When I first discovered that the crabapple trees bloomed after the bulk of the tulips I was disappointed.  Now I love it.  That means we have a constant show.  First the daffodils and hyacinth, then the tulips, followed by the trees, then the peonies, etc.  Makes me wish we lived across the street from ourselves. 

Here is a view from last year:

That color is true, by the way.

Did I mention the daisies on the corners?  They're about to take over the world (same thing they do every year), but while they're blooming in July it's pretty spectacular (this is a photo from 2008):

Now if only I could win the lottery and fix up the backyard.