Since the last posting, we've gotten quite a bit done. The house is painted, some plants set out, a wall built (that's me working on it there), and now I have a couple of other projects needing urgent attention.

Somehow, I managed to have free mulch dumped off in my front yard. A LOT of free mulch. There was a guy driving by in one of those huge trucks that hold mulch. He saw me working out in the yard and stopped and asked me if I wanted some free mulch.

"How much?" I asked.

"Enough to do your whole yard," he replied.

Wow! He wasn't kidding. I filled up about ten wheelbarrow-fulls and dumped them. My right arm is so sore, that I can barely move it today and I barely made a dent in the mulch-pile. You can see it in the before and after pictures below. Weeds in the back and along the side will need to be dug up so that I can put mulch down on it.
The sand in the front is still flowing out onto the sidewalk, so I'll probably have to put another retaining wall there.

I planted red cannas in the flower bed to the left and daylilies in front of the white wall. In front of the retaining wall are flax lilies and ornamental perennial peanut.

So, here are the next steps on yard work:

• Dig out weeds and spread out mulch (that's a huge one).
•  Put in a second retaining wall in front.
• Create a stepped entry into yard on right side. 
• Plant verge with new grass or ground cover. 

I'd better get back to it now. No time to waste.