Call in the Experts

When we moved into this house, I was frustrated with the landscaping, particularly in the front yard. It wasn't awful, but it wasn't exciting either.  See what I mean?
                           
So the first Spring we lived here, I got out the shovel, rake, and gloves and gave the flower beds a major overhaul.
                          
It was better, but I still wasn't in love with it.  And if we're going to be honest, it didn't hold up well.  I wasn't sure why but the plants just weren't thriving...or really growing at all.  So I called out a landscaper.  My original intention was to have her come out, look at the beds, and tell me what I was doing wrong or what I should plant instead or give me some other words of advice.  Basically, I never planned to pay for anything because I knew my el cheapo husband would never go for it!
The first thing she told me was that our beds were getting too much water with the gutters flowing right in them and that is why the plants were all looking a bit lackluster.  Made sense, but unfortunately the solution which involved rerouting gutters, removing part of our walkway to put gutters under, and installing a drainage thingy in the yard was way more involved than this DIYer could pull off.  Landscaper said she would put together a quote for us.
A couple of weeks later she showed up with the most gorgeous digital image of our potential new front landscaping.  It had a widened driveway, curvy paved new walkway, and lots of pretty flowers and plants.  Honestly, I felt really guilty because she had put so much work into it, and I still thought el cheapo husband was going to have nothing to do with it.
But he clearly was impressed with it as well, and while he clearly was not going to go for the whole hit to the bank account, he was willing to entertain a stage 1 option.  I tried offering to plant the stuff on my own , but it really was a pretty negligent expense by the time we paid for all the materials and work to get the major stuff done!  So, a couple weeks later a few guys and a Bobcat showed up at our house to begin work.  The boys were fascinated!

After relocating a tree, redoing the gutters, rearranging some of our existing plants, and planting a bunch of new stuff,  I now proudly present to you stage 1:

And they were even nice enough to tackle some back landscaping for us with some of our front yard remainders and spread some mulch (finally!) under the boys' playset.

Lesson learned!  DIYing is great, but you have to know your strengths and weaknesses...and sometimes it's just better to call in the experts!  Oh, and of course, I'm already on Josh pressuring him for Stage 2!  That darn walkway was just so pretty!!!