Is it Lee Day?

For the past 2 weekends, Adam and I have been slaves to yardwork. Thankfully, when we moved in to our 15 year-old home, it didn't need any immediate massive renovations, just some cosmetic changes. Well almost 2 years later, we are getting around to the outside! I am not what you call, "A Green Thumb" :-). I tend to kill every living flower/plant within a couple of months, through no fault of my own:-) If you remember, our garden crashed so badly last year that we never ate any of our produce. So Adam and I headed to Lowes and stocked up on flowers, weed killer, grass seed, tools and 4 truckfuls of mulch (not from Lowes). Remember how at Lee they would always put down fresh mulch on Lee Day and Homecoming? That's how it smells around here and I love it! We planted lots of things that I really can't remember the name of....except hydrangeas! I have a vision of a huge hydrangea bush where I can go outside and pick fresh bouquets for my table:-) We didn't do anything dramatic, but we were proud of ourselves. Trust me, if I had a lot more money, this place would be looking freakin awesome. Now here's the problem: The daisy-looking-flowers have only officially been in the ground less than 2 weeks and some of them are already dying! They've been watered, topsoiled, weeded, everything! Any suggestions?

Adam has also said that neighbors just aren't as friendly in Virginia as they are anywhere else he's lived. We actually hang out with our immediate neighbors, but in 2 weekends that we spent in our front yard, we have had every single neighbor within a 2 house radius stopped by to say hi. We also have awesome neighbors across the street that have loaned us any tool we ever needed (including their mildly autistic son who has joined us for hours upon end!). It's great!

Before and After Pictures of Everything:

This is after we painted/replaced siding on our house last summer






The 18 bags of leaves I bagged


Befores:








Afters: (I realize it doesn't look like a whole lot on pictures but I promise it is!!)











Adam's buddy, Matthew, just helping out










How our neighbor decided to increase the resale value of the neighborhood: