save our yard

in my last post, i mentioned that we started a few projects around the house...being that we are currently renting from my mom, we don't want to invest too much money since we don't actually own the home, but feel it is our responsibility to keep the house looking nice. during the first six years of its life, this house was a rental home to a couple of different families and needless to say, it has been a little neglected. the house really needs a lot of tlc, inside and out...especially out. the front landscaping lacks landscaping...the lawn is full of weeds, there is a partially burnt tree trunk on the left side of our yard, and the bushes in front of our windows are half dying--it looks awful! not to mention our back yard--there is hardly any grass in the yard and any "green" you see is actually a field of clovers and dandelions.
mario loves gardening and deep inside me, there is a little green thumb hiding somewhere and the turn of the spring season always brings out the green in me. this is the nerd in me speaking, but i love going to lowe's and browsing all their plants and flowers and imagining our perfect yard. like we do everything else, we impusively took a trip to our local lowe's store to "browse" and ended up going home with a car full of stuff. just like everything else, we split this project into phases, gave ourselves a tiny budget to spruce up the smaller side of our front lawn and will address the rest of it later. our tiny budget didn't take us far, so don't laugh at our little magnolias and young bushes, but with some time, sun, water, and love they will flourish into a beautiful garden some day.