The grass is always greener...two doors down.

So far this spring Mike has been working really hard to make our yard nice. The previous owner didn't do much yard work besides mowing. We have patches of no grass, patches of just weeds, and patches of sand/dirt that just won't grow grass. Last summer was kind of a trial and error for us - Mike tried a few different grass seeds and a few different weed killers. He even tried the 'weed and feed' which is supposed to kill the weeds but fertilize the grass. Not so much. It just burned up even more patches of grass for us to fill in again this year. So now we have figured out what works and we have tiny little blades of grass growing!!
The thing about yard work is that it is never an immediate gratification like my generation wants. We talked about this with our next door neighbors Travis and Erica, they are the same age as us, getting married soon, and are first time homeowners also! They do yard work just as much as we do and it's nice to be able to share tools like leaf blowers and hedge trimmers without having to go buy everything!
So here's the reason I titled my post the way I did... Two doors down from us (next to Travis and Erica) live Ed and Shirley (a very, very nice older couple). They have the most immaculate yard in the neighborhood. The grass is a perfect 'grass color' green, the hedges are alwyas trimmed perfectly, and the flowers seems to always be in bloom. Granted they have lived there somehwere between 20 and 30 years and they are retired so they have had the time to do it. This is where the whole instant gratification thing would be nice. Ed has had years to get his lawn and yard they way it is, and this is Mike's second summer. We can count last years trial by error year - even though it was practice.
(I'm sure you noticed how I referred to Mike doing the yard work...yeah, he does it all. I've potted some plants and flowers, and I help rake in the fall - but that's about it. )