Not the best time to remove shrubs!

Well, since we had such a marvelous day here in Seattle yesterday, I decided to tackle a garden bed that has long been needing a spruce up! This bed is along the East side of our house and get's lots of great sun in the morning, then shade the rest of the afternoon & evening.

About 5 years ago I created a green boxwood & burgundy New Zealand flax hedge in this bed, with the hopes that my wonderful boyfriend would build me an arbor to grow Wisteria along to give the area height. But the flax couldn't deal with our crazy weather and died, the boxwoods have gotten out of control and the arbor never came about. So yesterday I decided to remedy the problem.

So I got the boxwoods all dug out and was taking a break when these cute little birdies came looking to feed their babies. Before I started I searched through all the shrubs to make sure there were no nests and couldn't find anything, so I though it was safe to start pulling them out. BUT I didn't check the ground behind the shrubs and sure enough I found a nest with 2 little babies and an egg still waiting to hatch!

SO CUTE! But boy did my heart sink! First and foremost I love animals - ALL animals. I was so scared that the birdy parentals would abandon their nest and felt so bad about it all day! So while I worked in the yard, Miss Weezer kept a look out from the deck to make sure I didn't disturb anymore nests and it helped! The birdy parentals came back to feed their babies and keep them warm! WOO HOO!

Now time to get back out there and plant my new plants! A dogwood tree, both black & chartreuse green spike barberry's, a deep purple smoke bush and several gorgeous chartreuse and black heuchera's will be planted today and I just know it' gonna look awesome! I'll post more pics of the "after" later tonight!