Landscaping: Before & After

As promised, I am here with before and after pictures of our biggest landscaping project to date. When we purchased the house almost a year ago, the landscaping was pretty crummy to say the least. We spent hours last summer digging out ugly plants and working through the mess. We also planted about a hundred bulbs in the fall. I LOVED early spring when our bulbs were blooming. Afterward though? Notsomuch.

It was time for change!

Here is the before shot:

And the after:

Better, yes? We certainly think so!

We starting by digging up all the bulbs and storing them to be replanted next year. It was a job, let me tell you. I was quite sore the next day! After completing that it was time to weed and weed and weed...we had a lot of weeds! During this time we were researching our options for a raised bed and decided to go with the retaining wall option. This form of bed was a little more difficult and much heavier; thus it should last longer and be easier to maintain in the long run. Plus, it's pretty!

Next came the time to dig trenches, place the stones, and then place more stones on top of those stones. Our initial plan was to do two rows, but quickly we decided we needed to do 3-so, back to Menards we went! We also caulked the stones as sort of a way to seal them together. Stephen informed me that this was an important step and would prevent falling and crumbling. Next we laid weed blocking landscape material, mulch for drainage and lots of topsoil. When I say lots, I mean LOTS. About 1200 pounds actually.

Here are some during photos:

Then it was time to plant! This was the exciting part for me because you could see the project coming together and the beauty it would add to our house. I am all about the curb appeal, so this was perfect! We planted  such beautiful flowers and I plan on adding more too. It's going to be perfect for years to come!

We also spruced up a smaller flower bed near our back walk. It's pretty amazing the difference fresh mulch and a couple plants will make. I was really impressed!

And that's all for this project. We are working on some other landscaping projects now though, so I am sure you will get updates about those eventually!

What about you, have you ever re-vamped your landscaping? How did you do it?