The one with the gardening update (Kerry)

So I thought I would just update you all on the state of our garden.  Here is what it looked like when we moved in: 

It is small, but we saw potential and our gardener Eric was certainly ready for some major upheaval.  So we had him remove most of the plants so we can start fresh.  Here is what he was able to accomplish in one day:

And on a side note, that tree actually does have leaves and fruit on it, they are just too high up to fit into the photo.  I realize it looks kind of creepy here.  Our grand plans are to add a flower garden on one side, and a vegetable garden on the other side, some fruit on the third side, and more grass in the middle.  We also have a flower box in the front of the yard where we will plant herbs.  Finally, we will cover the fence with some flowering vines.  I did some shopping with with Eric and Peter this past week and we bought seedlings of onions, beets, spinach, butternut squash, bell peppers, raspberries, strawberries, roses, mint, basil, parsley, and several other flowers whose names I don't know, all for $40!    Here are some photos of our first plants:

And here is Eric in his brand new uniform and boots, working hard.  

We also bought a small lemon tree for the front of our house, so I'll close with a photo of it and hopefully post another progress report on the garden soon.