Hideous Hillside Makeover

I'd had about all I could stand of the hideous hillside staring me in the face each time I looked at our backyard.  Though I've always been thankful that our view is not of other peoples' homes, I haven't been too happy with the way our community left the hill behind our house.  They neglected to attempt any form of decent landscaping but rather opted for the easy way out...throwing grass seeds all over the hill and letting them grow where they would while red clay peeped its way through the holes where seedlings never survived. 

 Where's Waldo?

So after nagging politely asking Jonathan several times to help me make the hillside look better, he reluctantly agreed to help me tackle this project (within hours of arriving back home from Memphis this past weekend...what a saint!).  After some research on google, we rented a tiller from Home Depot and bought some creeping phlox from Lowe's (we always buy flowers/plants from Lowe's because if the plants die within a year, for any reason, you can exchange them). 

What we thought would take a couple of hours ended up taking two days.  To say we didn't know what we were doing would be an understatement.  Jonathan tilled the ground while I fished out all the rocks and weeds.  Sounds simple, right?  Not when rocks and weeds somehow keep multiplying.  It was a nightmare that we couldn't shake.  We had taken a good chunk of the grass out of the hillside already so we couldn't just walk away from the project, which is what I think we both wanted to do at that point. 

So by the time we had finally finished tilling and clearing the bottom 3 feet of the hill (which took us well into the second day) we decided we did not have time to clear out anymore of the hill.  So I began to arrange and space out the plants for an easy transfer to the hill.  (I guess you could say being a cheerleader helped with the "formations." Haha) 

While I did that, Jonathan (and Brody) were busy cleaning out the weeds and grass that had accumulated in the tiller.

Though the hard part was over, it wasn't smooth sailing from there.  Each hole we dug for the plants  only produced more rocks...some of them enormous!  I have never seen so many rocks in my entire life!  But we chugged along and before we knew it (yeah, right!) we were finished. 

Finshed for the time being, that is.  Our goal is to continue up the hill, chunks at a time.  Creeping phlox is a flowering ground cover that will eventually take over the entire area we cleared out.  As it grows larger each year, we will divide each plant and plant new ones farther up the hill.  (Which will require the whole tilling and clearing rocks process again...oh my!)  But eventually our hill will be a beautiful display that looks something like this (only better!)...

Image taken from here.

I just love spring and I love planting flowers.  There is something therapeutic about it.  But my favorite part is spending time with the hubs, improving OUR home together.  And this year was extra special as Brody got out there with us.  He enjoyed playing in the dirt, mud, and water hose...especially since we were allowing him to get as dirty as he pleased all day long. 



I only wish I had captured a shot of his entire body covered in dirt at the end of the day.  I didn't think of it until I was showering him off and mud covered the floor of the shower. Oh well, I guess the image of his muddy diaper bottom is a special one for only Jonathan and me.