First Changes

In early May, I began creating beds where grass had taken over. My first choice was the East edge of the fence, as I saw this as the perfect place for my much-loved lilies and Sunflowers. Unfortunately at this point I had not yet started my garden journal nor had the idea to take pictures, so I have no record of the date.  I do wish I had taken pictures of the yard as it was when I began, to show the huge changes. You can see in some along the West wall of the house where I have not yet started how they all used to look:

 The area between the white arrows is what all the beds looked like when we moved in.
After pulling grasses, I planted lily bulbs - I had a huge mix I had collected over time, and Marcia and my Dad gave me some new ones for my birthday. The ones I collected were all stargazers (of course, my favorite :) ) and the ones from Dad and Marcia were a mix of oriental, stargazer and others.
Lily bulbs were plated mid-may.

 These 4 pictures were taken June 21st, after my lilies had plenty of time to do some growing, and I had time to do some work on the bed. By this time I had turned the whole thing, and gotten rid of as much of the grass as I could. The sunflower seeds went into the ground on June 3rd. This was when they were first starting to poke out, which I love.  After I plant sunflowers (well, ok, after I plant any seeds or bulbs) I anxiously await that first glimpse of green poking out of the dirt.  It is so exciting, I check every day.  Really.

Both along the E fence by the driveway.







Here is a map of where the first changes occured

Teaser:
 I was out today in my yard weeding and watering (the essential W's) and my sunflowers are ~12" tall now!! I cant post the pics yet, I want to do postings chronologically, so you will just have to keep checking, and wait to see :)
I will try to do at least one each day until I am caught up.  Dont worry, I dont have updates and pictures for every day between now and early June! I only took pics a few days in there :)