Thursday, May 19, 2022

Small Home Improvement Project - Landscape Changes

 


Our weather has been crazy this year.  Mother Nature has thrown a little bit of everything at us this month, including snow!  This week I was super happy to get outside and do some serious yard work which included the start of my big xeriscape project.  I'm going for low water/maintenance, not no water/maintenance.  This has been a project I've wanted to do for years and after a lot of research, thinking over a ton of different ideas and some planning I was all set to do it, last year.  Demolition started and then came to an abrupt halt leaving my yard a Class A disaster.  It looked HORRIBLE!  Embarrassingly , horrible.

 

Grass removed and wintered over
Looks unsightly, but it will be nice once I'm done

Prior we had grass, but due to the large shade trees it never did grow very well.  Lots of balds spots requiring reseeding, plus the fertilizers and weed control chemicals.  I didn't like wasting the amount of money, water and effort to try to maintain a mediocre lawn, it felt really wasteful of both time and resources.  I needed to make a drastic change.  So I started tearing out the lawn and getting it ready for a big redo, but I only got halfway.  Fortunately, my chickens helped me out and they finished what I could not.  Thank you ladies!

 

I removed the plastic lawn edging, expanded the garden bed
and edged it with rocks from other areas of our yard

Initial plans had to change because I'm retired so there is not much of a budget to complete this project.  I'm not worried though because I'm using what I already have on hand as well as a miniscule budget and some gift cards to get a lot of this kicked off.  And hopefully some FREE or low cost stuff from Facebook will help out too.  My youngest daughter bought me a Korean lilac bush for the yard and my oldest gave me a Home Depot gift card to buy more stuff, both were for Mother's Day.

 

I am planting perennials and some smaller varieties of shrubs (gifts & gift cards)
The rhubarb plant has been there for years and I've had the bird bath for ages

I am so happy with the progress so far

The entire landscape plan runs from the curb at the end of our driveway to the backyard fenceline so it is a pretty huge project overall, but I'm eating this elephant one bit at a time, working in sections and once it is to my liking I am moving on to the next one.  For the first time since purchasing my home I am finally going to have the yard I've always dreamed about and imagined in my mind.  So far it is turning out as I had hoped and I couldn't be happier.  I'll keep you updated on my progress as I work on it.

 

8 comments:

  1. Your yard looks so nice!!
    Enjoy, janie

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  2. Oh I love your yard. What a peaceful paradise when you are done.

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  3. Looks great and what fun! When covid hit two years ago, I noticed that there were people on facebook marketplace swapping plants. So no money needed. I got very interesting plants I would never have considered before just because people are generous. You may have a local social media like next door also that could provide free plants.

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    Replies
    1. I've been keeping an eye out to see if anyone is offering up anything I want, but so far no luck. Maybe later. One of my kind readers has offered me some day lilies when I'm ready. I'll likely reach out to her and take her up on the offer. Fortunately I have gift cards I get to use. :)

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  4. I assume it’s not your plans anymore to sell the house and travel?! Considering what a homebody you are, (and all the uncertainty of today’s world) it’s probably best to stay put!

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