Small Home Improvement Project - The Big Flowerbed

 

You missed me last week, didn't you?  It has been crazy busy around here lately.  Good thing I'm retired because who has time to go work.?  Not this girl!  I've been steadily working on the first project to completely revamp my yard.  I finished up the large flower bed and it has been so much fun, plus what a transformation!  It has been amazing, not only in how it looks, but also with how I feel now that it is done.

 

I have a very small yard, my home sits on only one eighth of an acre, but it is plenty for me.  And the way it is laid out and wraps around my house it actually seems larger, at least to me anyway.  Even still, I'm taking this whole landscaping project one chunk at a time so it is manageable and I won't get overwhelmed by the enormity of the overall project.  It's a biggie.

 

I used a garden hose to lay out how I wanted the new beds to go
Then I pulled up all of the lawn edging and replaced it with rock

The rhubarb pland and the daylilies on the left of it were all I had in this bed
I divided the new bed into three sections and got it planted out how I wanted it

I have three large trees in my yard that produce a lot of welcome shade in the hot summers.  I love nothing more than to sit under the canopy of leaves near the pond and enjoy time outdoors.  It is one of my favorite things to do.  I started off by extending the largest flower bed with our maple tree to now include the oval shaped flower bed with the apple tree making one huge winding bed.  I pulled up all of the vinyl lawn edging and replaced it with rocks I already had in our front and back yards.  Then it was off to find the perfect plants I've always wanted in my garden.

 

In then next section I moved the bird bath and added more
plants  as well as a thick layer of bark mulch

The last section of this bed was the area under our maple tree

Over the winter we had added a lot of compost to this area so when I got ready to plant I found the soil was rich and dark and totally full of worms, big fat happy ones.  We've struggled a lot with this soil, but allowing the chickens to run through it for several months and adding all that compost really made it come alive.  In the past whenever I planted something it would struggle to survive and it was incredibly disappointing.  This time around I can already tell a difference.  For one thing, nothing I've planted so far has gone into shock or died.  Every single plant is thriving and appears to be really happy in its new home.  That is a first for me!

 

I added a few plants and more bark mulch

I think this is my favorite part

I moved and set up the bird bath so I can easily see it from the kitchen and dining room windows.  Then, just like the icing on a cake I spread out sixteen bags of bark mulch ($2 a bag at Home Depot) and it really added the WOW factor!  I'm so happy!  I'm going with a lot of partial sun and shade loving perennials this time around so I not only get more bang for my buck, but long term it will be less work each year.  My goal with this yard is low maintenance, less water and manageable plants that will be around for a good long time.  I was really careful with what I chose and where I planted things, giving enough space for growth and not overcrowding anything.  I think I did okay and I couldn't be happier with the results.

 

Time to give the pond some love

Next project up was to move across the yard and work on the other large flowerbed with our little pond.  That one I was really eager to get to work on.  I'll be back on Thursday with that update.  Anyone else taking on any fun landscape projects this year?