The beginning.

The backstory... we have a house with a front and back yard. The front was a smattering of native plants and mulch, the back... weeds mowed low enough to pass for a lawn. We are located in the urban fringe.

Here it is in all it's glory the day we moved in.

The front yard.

The back yard (and babies).

Having never had a yard to care for we followed the standard pattern, mow lawn, water, pull weeds, add mulch, rinse, repeat. This continued for three years.

Here's where we changed a few things.

My dad came and helped us remove the back "lawn".

We removed most of the plants in the front yard and added 6 cubic yards of something called "clodbuster" (an organic mix of compost from American Soil, Richmond).

Then we got the idea to do some french intensive gardening, aka double-digging.

...and that's the beginning.