Adventures in Landscaping, Part 1

Remember when this happened a few weeks ago?

Aside from the new mailbox we had recently put in, this accident came at a pretty good time, as we were wanting to resod a few areas of our yard anyway. And now it was being paid for by the driver's parents :)

But when you give a mouse a cookie... he's going to ask for a completely relandscaped yard. So we went all out (and it's still not over yet... hence the Part 1).

First, the "Before" shots taken Friday morning:



Ok, this isn't entirely before... Brad put the mailbox post back in and threw down some landscape timbers along our property line

We figured we'd also patch up the backyard while we were at it...

Now that you have a good mental picture, fast forward to Friday afternoon.

The Mulch Masters were here, hard at work...

They started by removing all of the existing sod on the left side of the house (it was uneven when it was first installed).

We also decided to plant a couple Queen palms to fill in the void and help divide the houses a bit (and also distract from the horrid electrical box)



Here's a few hundred dollars in bushes and plants, waiting to be installed:

New sod in progress shot:

After all the sod was down and the trees were in, they called it a night:

Saturday morning bright and early, we got started with the planting.

After chopping out an old palm and trimming down a bushy tree, we installed the first row of bushes along the left side of the house:

These look small at the moment, but they are expected to grow nice and full and really fill in the area.

Next, we installed a row of shorter bushes in front:




Mulch Masters then came in and added fresh new mulch to the bed:

After the first area was addressed, we moved on to the next.

Brad bought a roll of weed liner/protector and we measured, cut and staked it in where our new flower beds would be:

I thought a flower bed in the mailbox area would be a nice touch as well.

Here's Brad, installing our new mailbox. Both the base and mailbox were purchased at Home Depot.

Neighbor Joe is hoping to launch his modeling career by be "discovered" on this blog



Then came the fun part that involved some actual creativity... arranging our new bushes and flowers in the beds. Here are the arrangements we settled on:

Once everything was laid out, we got to work planting.

An hour or two later, they were ready to go...

And some mulch for the finishing touch!

Meanwhile, on the right side of the house, new sod was being put in...

Along with a brand new bed of mulch for our trees:

At this point it was late afternoon and Brad and I were beat. We jumped in the pool while the guys resodded the backyard and made a nice new bed around our trees:

We still have some work to do back here, but it's so much better than before.

Soon after, we dragged our sore, sunburned and bug bitten bodies to bed to rest up for the final round of the weekend.

Bright and early Sunday morning, we headed back to Home Depot to get supplies for a pathway and landing area by the left gate.

We had to dig out the old dirt, cut out the weed cover and level everything out.

We picked up some stone edging pieces to keep the mulch in while providing a flat surface for the door to open onto (it kept getting stuck from all the crap that had built up on the ground)

After everything was leveled, we arranged 12" pavers into a square:

To hold everything together, we used paver sand between the seams:

After everything is covered, you lightly water the area once every 10 minutes (four times total), and you're good to go.

After our landing pad was set, I used 16" pavers to create a pathway along the side:

And the left side of our house was DONE!

Well.... almost.

We also picked up some edging to use around our mailbox bed, because it was higher than the curb and we needed a way to keep the mulch from spilling out.

It was about $15 for 20 feet... easy to install, and our problem was solved!

Brad wants to use them around all of our beds, but I'm still debating on if they are necessary or not. What do you guys think? Does it look weird if only one bed has them?

Next up for Landscaping Part 2 will include re-mulching all of our old beds... including this one up front:

And this one, which is currently halfway remulched...

And more clearing out/pruning of old plants, planting a few new bushes, and tidying up the backyard area. Brad also purchased some new LED yard lights for all the new beds so that will be hell fun to install.

I also have a new DIY driftwood branch experiment in the works right now... excited to see how this one unfolds. Stay tuned!