Playing hooky

All of my talk about making progress on the office, and what do I do instead? Go play outside. I can't help it. If the weather is good, I can't seem to stay inside, especially when there are so many outside things that need to be done too. Wednesday, I stole some wildflowers from the side of the road (phlox and Virginia waterleaf). My mother has since told me this is illegal (the didn't teach us that in criminal law...), so I won't be doing that again. Still, I now have a few patches of beautiful phlox that I hope will spread. I put the waterleaf next to the back porch, but I think there's too much sun for it there. It's very perky in the morning, but starts to droop at about 2 pm. I'll move it to the front where there's plenty of shade.

I also took it upon myself to prune some of the trees in the woods around our yard. It might seem dumb to prune the woods, but it does look much better. It'll also keep Shayne from being smacked with branches when he mows the lawn.

Yesterday, Shayne and I installed edging pavers around the side and back flower beds. It seemed like a small thing, but it looks a TON better. I'm happy!

Here is the back of the house when we moved in:

After the removal of the mint and the addition of wildflowers:

Now, with fresh mulch, edging, and more flowers:

There's only one small section by the corner of the house that looks as full as I want it, but in a few years everything will fill in, I hope. We have lots of echinacea, coreopsis, black-eyed susans, daisies, and other native wildflowers that spread, so it should be nearly self-sufficient now.

Now about the office...