Front yard progress.

We recently installed a new fence and gate in front of our house. One that will, we hope, keep dogs and baby in and crack addicts out. (That's not asking too much, right?).

So here's the progression. When we bought our house, the whole front yard was cement. If you look us up on Google street view, you will see a car parked in the front yard. Classy, huh?

This "before" photo features a dead tree over the porch, a decrepit bench, a "green bin" (we do municipal compost!) and random litter.

Cement, dead tree, trash.

When I was pregnant with Joe, we saved up and paid a couple of guys with jackhammers out to get rid of the cement. That took a couple of days. But we didn't immediately replace it with much - just some cedar mulch. Here is the front yard right after the cement was removed and before we laid the mulch.

A little better.

Since then, we have made slow progress in landscaping the front yard. The mulch was probably a good idea, because, despite the moonscape you see above, we've found the soil to be quite friable. This year, we planted some baby trees - a fig and a maple - and tons of creeping thyme, rosemary, sage, and oregano. And a couple of tomato plants, of course.

And just this week, we finally got rid of the ugly chain link fence and had a new fence and gate installed. Not too shabby, eh? (Golden evening light should get some of the credit for the improvement.)

Dead tree finally gone - replaced by fig, maple, herbs, tomatoes.

I admit, our progress fixing up the front yard has seemed excruciatingly slow at times. But when I see this, I feel that, slowly, but surely, it's coming together. That's a nice feeling.

P.S. We're off to New York City for a long weekend! Stroller - check. Ergo baby carrier - check. Awesome brand new toys to bribe Joe with on the five hour flight - check. Eek. Wish us luck! Have a great weekend.