Soil Toil

 I decided since it's so warm and things are a-blooming, I should get out in the yard and do some work. Here are some photos of what I decided to work on.

 I just cleaned this area up a bit, and put some of the leftover crystals I had around it. No big change here yet.
Edited: I went back and took some after shots. Nothing earth shattering, but you get an idea of the process. I'll add new mulch as soon as I can.

The Bradford Pears are in all their glory and before the heavy rain we got, they smelled to high heaven. It was enough to make your nose actually hurt and it wasn't a good sweet smell either. Just pure pollen.

I transplanted some hostas around the bottoms of them, and pulled weeds.

 Edited: Here are the hostas moved into their new home.

I separated the hostas here, to transplant. And I dug up the azaleas and moved them to other parts of the yard.

 Edited: This is how bare it looks now.

Edited: Here is where I moved the other azaleas. After seeing the tulips come up, I definitely want to make sure I plant some bulbs next fall.

I pruned the Oleander and stripped the ugly dying leaves off of it. I'm not sure I should have done that, but either the dry spell before the heavy rain, or the cool of the winter months had the leaves all curled and brown. Not a pretty picture and if the new leaves come on, the old ones would have ruined the beauty of it.

My Hydrangea is beginning to green up and the clover under it is getting big. Love that. SR thought they were weeds last summer and pulled some of them out, but they are pretty prolific.

I LOVE the little violets that are spreading all around. If you look really close, you can see a bud about to bloom.

My camera didn't take a very good shot of this bloom, but you get the idea. I had to document it for myself.

I'm not a gardener who likes it perfectly landscaped, but I'm not into total chaos as the english gardens are either. They have their place, and in some yards it looks amazing, but my yard is too spread out for that kind of thing. As soon as may be, I will plant some Loropetalum where the azaleas were, and hope they do better than the last three things I planted there. I'm still trying to find a bush for that bed, that will not just barely exist, but grow full and thick.
When I get a bit more done, I'll update you all on the progress and let you see how it looks.

WW update:
Didn't do so well on the eating Sunday, but since then I'm doing great. Or at least I think I am. MY scales say I've already lost, but my scales don't really count. We'll see come Saturday.