What a Difference a Year Makes

Remember what our poor little large lawn looked like when we blogged about it almost exactly this time last summer?  Here, let me remind you:

It was painful being "those" people in our cozy little cul-de-sac.  And of course, being right on the corner means that everyone who drives by the court gets an eyeful of what we've got going on out front.  We tried everything.  And by everything, I mean one thing only: PatchMaster.  This stuff is an all-in-one combo of mulch, fertilizer and grass seed.  We put all of our faith into this one product...and unfortunately, it let us down.  I couldn't get over the fact that it looked like insulation spread out over the lawn.  I think we were supposed to cover it with soil and, ahem, water it regularly, but by the time we figured that out, it was far too late.  By the fall of 2010, we had conceded defeat and eagerly waited for the snow to cover up our mess of a lawn.

Fast forward to July 2011.  We bought two giant bags of Turf Builder EZ Seed.  We figured we couldn't go wrong with a product with "EZ" in the name.  And this time, we decided to add a few bags of Enriched LawnSoil to our cart as well.  If we were going to spend the money, we may as well do it right the first, er, second time around.  After several applications of the soil-grass-soil lawn sandwich, we watered waited.  And watered waited.  And watered waited some more.  What can we say?  Water is expensive and I'm of the opinion that nature should do most of the work when it comes to watering.  Luckily for us, Mother Nature decided to take pity on us and has showered us (literally) with tons of rain this season.

Which brings us to this (drumroll please):

It's thick!  It's green!  And more importantly, it's actually there!  We're half expecting the neighbors to throw a party for us and hoist us up onto their shoulders while they parade us around the block chanting our names in a musical montage just for this great achievement!  There are still a couple of thin patches but nothing compared to the big ol' bald spot that was there last year.  The above picture was also taken right after Craig mowed.  It was actually pretty long when he got started:

{ Another project to add to the never-ending to-do list: camouflage that awful sump pump pipe. }

Oh how I love our little push mower.  Grasscycling forever!

But now that we've finally got some grass established, we're planning on cutting some of it out and replacing the rocks under the tree with some red mulch, adding a few spireas and maybe putting in a big rock.  I'll post some plans of what we're thinking of doing soon.

Have you guys ever failed miserably on a project the first time around?  How about being the eyesore of your neighborhood? 

{ PS: Um, when did this post become a HUGE ad for Scotts?!  I didn't even realize we've only been using Scotts products for our landscaping needs.  Nope, we weren't paid for the free plug.  They just have the shiniest bags at Home Depot and green is one of my favorite colours. }