I have to find my camera to take some updated pictures, so here's a general update:
A coworker at the high school library had to ton of plants she needed to divide (she's trying to sell her house and tidy up the yard). So I got FREE hollyhocks, tiger lilies, hosta, ornamental grass, echinacea and various ground covers she didn't know the names of. I've planted most of them, not sure how they'll hold up in my yard but we'll see.
I'm also in the process of double digging my garden, which is a lot of physical work. But supposedly it makes a big difference. All I have in the ground so far is lettuce and pea seeds...the rest has to wait until the last frost later this month.
We bought two inexpensive bird feeders last week and are already getting a lot of birds (I think we're the only ones feeding them). There are about a million yellow finches, some blue jays, orioles and a red winged blackbird. No hummingbirds yet (we got 2 nectar feeders for them).
I hung an American flag on the front of the house along with some hanging baskets of impatiens...the house is looking like someone actually lives here! (I just wish we could afford to build a front porch and/or a back deck. Because with all the work I've been doing in the yard, we don't have anywhere to sit out there to enjoy it!
Here's a quick picture of our front bed in late-April:
