now this,

this is grass. Real, honest-to-goodness grass.

Do you have any idea how wonderful this is for me to claim as my own front yard?
Not impressed?
Come to Texas.
The vast majority of yards here in Texas are, well, a combination of bermuda grass and weeds that are mown really short and are very patchy. At least here in the type of neigborhoods that we can afford right now, no one cares much about what their yard looks like,
and since they don't care, everyone else decides they don't care either.

It's not very pretty.

Until a month or two ago, our yard was an overgrown mess of clover, three or four types of wide-bladed grasses, and weeds of all different kinds.

We just couldn't take it anymore.
So we worked. We started off by killing all the existing grass. Then, when my family came to visit, they helped us till the yard and pull out those monstrous bushes you see next to the house there.

I don't know if we could have done it without my family's help-it was seriously a lot of work.
Next, we planted a few annuals and some Mexican Feather grasses. We prepared to lay down weed barrier and cover it with mulch.
We recieved three separate angry letters from our HOA in the process, informing us that we
"must promote healthy lawn growth."
Hrm. Wasn't it obvious that is exactly what we were attempting to do?
I'm still a bit perturbed about that.
Let's not open that box again.... moving on.

We (or Kent, rather) laid down half a pallet of sod,
then we watered and watered and watered,
planted two redbud trees,
created a limestone brick border,
and....
voila!

Now you'll have to excuse me. I'm going to go peek outside my window and gaze at my grass.

Again.