Attack of the "Daddy-Lions"

Yardwork. This has become a dirty word at our house (no pun intended). When we bought our house, we didn't realize just how overgrown it was and how much work the yard would need. It had been rented out for several years before we bought it, and apparently the renters didn't do an ounce of weeding or yardwork (not that I can blame them because, as a renter, I wouldn't have either). Needless to say, our lawn looked more like a dandelion field than grass, and our flower beds looked more like grass than flower beds.

So, Eric and I had the daunting task of using screwdrivers to remove as many of the dandelions from the lawn as possible before they could "reseed" the lawn with their little white puffballs. Anyone who has removed dandelions from the grass knows how tedious of a job it is (Carrie, I know you know what I'm talking about). To date, I think we have removed six Wal-mart bags stuffed with dandelions...and we still have plenty more to go, although the yard does look much better already.

Mark was our diligent bag-holder while Eric and I removed dandelions. Mark, being the inquisitive child that he is, wanted to know what the plants were called. The conversation went something like this:

Mark: What are those things called?

Jamie: They're dandelions.

Mark: They're not all daddy-lions. Some of them are mommy-lions and brother-lions, too.

You may look at the picture below and think it is a picture of the beautiful spring buds on my trees. Which it is. But, on closer inspection, you will notice all of the grass surrounding the trees and think that the trees are planted in the lawn. If only my life were that easy. These trees are actually in a large, overgrown flower bed. Yes, that's right. All of that beautiful green grass should not be there, but somehow worked its way over the edging dividers and took root in the flowerbeds. It'll take me at least a week, or maybe two if I'm lucky, to remove all of the grass and weeds...or maybe I'll leave it and do it next year. :)
And here's my flower bed in the front yard. Again, notice how the grass goes almost all the way up to the house? There IS a border "barrier" that the grass has by-passed. You can kind of see the swirly line where the grass should end and the flowerbed begin. So do you know what that means? Yep, you guessed it, more weeding...