Here is how they looked this spring (sorry I didn't take a good before picture before Colin started digging but you can see in the background that they haven't improved much in the last decade and a half):
The stone wall had fallen down. The day lilies are nice, but they and the crabgrass seem to be the only thing that can grow there. The azalea there flowers beautifully, if covered in snow all winter, but was very misshapen. The section by the bulkhead just had weeds. Three lovely people picked up the day lilies and the azalea. (Some of the rooted azalea Alyssa transplanted.) Colin dug out the poor quality soil and hauled it all up into the woods. We used that dirt to build the new path in the woods (along with the dirt that we had dug out the driveway when making some of the raised beds).
Colin also hauled all the stone and added it the growing rock pile on the side of the house.
When removing the large concrete slabs by the bulkhead, we uncovered an enormous ants nest.
