So if you remember from the last post this is what our house looked like when we bought it. We did some work trimming bushes but realized that the bushes were in too bad of a shape and way too many of them to attempt to save them.
So the next step was to pull them out! We did this the old-fashioned, redneck way. A Ford truck and a chain! 
We did it in 2 stages. Our neighbor helped us pull a few out in the front and then my husband borrowed a truck and we did all the rest on another Saturday. After a full day of work and a massive pile of bushes this is what we were left with…
Before
And after!
Before
After
And before
And after!
Then we rented a tiller and spent another Saturday clearing out roots, tilling the ground up and then even more time/days digging out monkey grass, and re-edging beds. I type all that out in a sentence but seriously it represented several Saturdays and bits and pieces of time when baby was napping spent doing lots of work in June and July… it was so hot! But it was a great postpartum workout! 
Finally we were ready to start putting something back in. The landscaping will have to be done in several stages. For one reason it was late in the summer and we have had a horrible drought here in the south. And another after buying and having a dump truck load of mulch delivered and buying a car load of plants, our landscaping budget was spent for this summer. So come Spring, we will add more bushes and plants and everything that we planted this summer will have grown more to fill up the room – so I’ll do an updated post then.
But for now I am loving the fresh/clean look! This garden area in front of the house/garage went from this…
to this!
And here’s a shot of the side of the house – I had several plants die and need to add more so there will be more added to this area in the spring.
But for just living here 2-3 months (and having a baby during that time too) going from this
to this has been a much welcomed change! Seriously so much better!
I did some yard sale and Craigslist browsing to add some new things to our front porch that you might see above – more on those later this week!
Wow! I’m tired just looking at the before and after s. Great improvement!
Have a great night…
Sherri
Wow! What a transformation – not to mention lots of hard work!! Love how the front porch is now the focal point of your home – it looks so nice! Thanks for sharing – looking forward to seeing other changes you are making.
Christina, by removing all those large bushes and trees it exposed the beauty of the house. It looks great, can’t wait to see the ending results…Millie
http://frugaliciouschick.blogspot.com/
Love the rockers on the front porch! gardening is very hard work, great job done. ann lee s
Looks great. So much cleaner and open.
Wow! I love it! I love working in my flower beds. I remember after having my babies, how good it felt to have another accomplishment (gardening) besides mothering! As I sometimes got overwhelmed by the enormity of the task of taking care of our baby and needed a creative outlet!
I appreciate your efforts & can see the hard work you have done. Now you can sit back while the baby is asleep & look through Pinterest for ideas. There will be some trial & error, but so worth it & you can be proud of what you did on your own!
You really have done a lot! Looking good. I will suggest that if the budget can afford it at all, planting shrubs now rather that waiting until spring will give them a much better chance at life. They will have all winter to develop roots and can survive the hot weather better. They will however need to be watered regularly for at least the first year.
Moving house with a new little baby can’t be easy Christina and you guys have done so much already, wow!! Such a pity the old shrubs and bushes couldn’t be saved, but they did look a bit over crowded. Can’t wait to see what you garden looks like in Spring