Did I kill it?

Ok well, we decided (that means my husband decided mainly because he knows more about the subject than I do) that we should (meaning I) should mow the lawn again although I just mowed on Friday afternoon.  I was supposed to mow yesterday but it just didn't happen.  So this morning I go out and pull out the push mower and am trying to figure out how to lower the blades.  We decided (see above) that this week we should lower the blades so the seeds to come back so often.

Anyways I finally get it figured out and fill her up with gas and get going.  This was right after breakfast.  I wanted to have it mowed so we could also go to the library but I wouldn't have to melt later.  As I am mowing I realize that it isn't picking up all the grass so it looks like I'm not even trying to bag it (which I am).  After a couple passes I decide to check the bag and it has bagged about half the bag when it should be full by now.  I realize as I'm dumping the grass in the garbage bag that the grass is still wet.  I didn't see dew on the cars this morning when my husband left for work so it didn't occur to me that it might be dewy.  So I just keep going.

I noticed with my first pass that the grass was really short.  Short enough that it is no longer green.  Did I kill it?  Did I lower the blade too much?  Oh well.  I did what I was told to do and kept mowing.  Then it dies on me.  So I empty the bag again and it is again only half full and should be full by now.  I tried to start the mower and it wouldn't start.  Did I just kill the mower too?  I figure I just over heated it with the damp grass.  So, it's time to go to the library.  When we get back it should have cooled off enough to finish mowing and the grass shouldn't be so wet.

We go to the library reading time, get some books, and come straight home so I can resume mowing.  It is hot already but I know it will only get worse.  So I start the mower up and with the same problems as before I finish mowing.  It took longer and it doesn't look like I tried to bag it.  It also looks yellow so I'm afraid I've killed it.  Luckily I didn't kill the mower.  Although had I killed the mower my husband would have just laughed at me.

I would be horrified and he would laugh becuase you see I brake most things around here.  My husband and kids don't brake anything compared to me.  I don't do it on purpose and my husband was warned before we got married that I could brake steal balls.  He now fully understands this.  So if I have succeeded in killing the grass he will probably still laugh at me and fix it.  Why do you think I married a man so handy at so many things?

"Before" and "After"

Well this last week we got a lot of work done.  We wanted to do some stuff to our front yard to make it look better and to make some flower beds.  I forgot to take some "before" pictures but I have plenty of "after" pictures.  Take a look.

 This is the tree in  our front yard.  We added the brick and while doing so made it a little bigger.  Then we planted flowers and added dark brown mulch.

 This is the hedge in front of our front window.  We trimmed it up nice and neat, removed all the old red mulch and added the brick.  We also made this section a little bigger than it was previously.  Then we added flowers.

 The red tree in this picture we added.  There was a bush there that we weren't too fond of.  We are moving it else where.  Right now it is in a pot waiting for us to determine where we want to put it.

 A little closer view.

 Here we didn't want a muddy mess so we put some flat bricks down and put rock around it to help prevent a muddy mess under the water spicket.

These are my hanging strawberry plants.  I was so excited to see them at Walmart.  I have a couple of strawberries almost ready to pick right now and I can hardly wait.

We think our yard looks much better.  Not that it looked bad earlier.  We just like it more now.  We have plans for the side of the house and the back yard but as you probably know it isn't cheap so we will wait for a little bit before tackling those projects.

So what do you think?  Do you have yard projects this year?