My First Attempt at Working in the Garden

Yikes.  It was scary beforehand.  Here is what it looked like in the front of our house just a few short days ago:

eww.

It was supposed to look pretty...

...but it doesn't.

...it's very overgrown...

...and is full of fungus.

 So, I gave Josh a list of stuff to get at the hardware store that looked like this:  Get stuff for the garden.

Yep, I had no idea what I was doing.

I took these things (big scissors, shears, trimmers???  WHAT DO YOU CALL THEM?) and trimmed up the overgrown bushes to make them look more circular.

Doesn't look too bad...

...but they are all different sizes still.  At least they aren't overgrown.

Now that my back hurts like h*ll...

This mess presented itself... 

...and after removing all this... 

...it turned into this.

After a few more HOURS of weeding, trimming, and not really knowing what I was doing, here is the final product:

Still not too pleased with the overall look of our front garden...

...but it's definitely an improvement.

Next year, after some research, I plan to take out most of the flowers in the front garden that I don't like and replace them with stuff I do like.  I also want to make the bushes smaller, re-mulch, and make it look more spiffy in general.

I also took some hydrangeas from our bushes and brought fresh flowers inside!

 Now....

...what to do with all of this?