A Tale of Two Weekends

Hello all!  Over the course of the last two weekends, I successfully dug up the front yard!  All by myself (well, mostly)!  With nothing but shovels and my hands!  Amazing!  Here is what my front yard looked like before:

The porch side of my front yard.

The flagpole side of my front yard.

It looks like a pretty small front yard, and it is. But it sure didn't feel that way when I was tearing out all of that grass...

So I dug up the flagpole side on the 21st, and I dug up the porch side on the 28th.  And then I planted all the plants yesterday on the 30th before and after my family's Memorial Day picnic.

Doesn't look like much, does it?  I am assured that they will fill out as the summer goes on, but I remain skeptical.  The next course of action is to move those straggler plants from the middle of the yard into more acceptable positions.  After that, I want to get some stepping stones so I can make a path down the center.  Our mailman usually cuts through the yard and I want to make it as easy as possible for him.  Aren't I thoughtful?  Then mulch I guess, even though I've always hated mulch.  I just feel like it will look unfinished without it, you know?  I'd like to get a birdbath and maybe a few wrought iron garden accessories.  I'm going for a scraggly English garden sort of look combined with the sort of garden you'd expect to see surrounding a witch's hut.  Does that make any sense?  I can see it perfectly in my mind...  I'll try and post some inspiration photos.