Transforming Our Front Yard
When we first got moved in to our new house- we didn't really pay attention to the landscaping . We had a blank slate to work from and a million ideas of what we wanted to do. What we didn't have was the time to deal with it - as we were busy updating our other property to get it ready to rent out - so this is where all of our attention was.
Well finally, we have got all the wrinkles worked out and have turned over the other units to tenants and put our focus on our own home now.
I'm so excited to get to start working in our yard!
Here is an older picture of the front yard when we were still remodeling the house
We didn't really have an official starting point - but we knew that we wanted to get the front yard in shape first because this is the focal point of the house and the first thing you see when you visit - so we wanted for that to be welcoming and to look like someone actually lives here. Our front yard has a small walled off corner just outside the front door and this seemed like a good place to get things kicked off.
Here is the workspace we are starting with - my wife has already started clearing the grass out from around the edges and Nutmeg clearly approves so far.
This is the edging that we are putting around our flower bed - we started with the bricks just to give us an idea of how we wanted to lay it out ... the wood edging is what we planned to use to create the space and divide the grass from the flowerbed.
And you can see it starting to take shape here...
Ultimately - we decided that the bricks looked nice by themselves - so we chose to keeps the bricks in place and will use the wood edging on the other side of the yard.
Looks like Cinnamon approves of the new landscaping as well.
Here is the end result of the day - it's still not complete - we went to Home Depot and got some landscaping fabric, red wood chips, river rock, pea gravel to really spruce it up and we will be laying that all down today.
I'll post up some pics of when its finished - it will probably alway be a work in progress because the size of it allows for us to add so many different types of flowers and vegetables. We are likely to continue adding and subtracting from this space as needed. We plan to put a few small vegetables in the space for now.
I look forward to posting an update with new pics of our progress
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Coming together nicely, just a question though: Do you have a wall around your yard or are people just able to walk in? Should build a big wall so no one can enter with spikes on and electric fencing on that, just to keep the front yard safe of course.
what - no moat?
Lol, no joke that is run of the mill security in South Africa, the moat would be classy though. :)
wow - I just moved out of an area that requires that kind of security .. this place here is nothing like that - I left a computer outside on the carport - hoping for someone to take it and it sat there for 2 weeks untouched before I finally had to take it to the local Goodwill and donate it. Left my cell phone outside one day and drove off... came back 6 hours later it was right where I left it...the neighborhood feels pretty secure so far.. Oh .. we also have two giant german shepherd/ pit bull mix dogs that patrol the front and back yard... at the last place - a kid next door left his bike in the yard to go inside and get a glass of water - when he came out the bike was gone. I'm not saying there is no crime here in this area - but it's a hell of a lot nicer than the place we just moved from - now we sit in the yard and have bonfires and let the dogs go crazy running around on a 1/3 of acre - it's very relaxing here
That is how it should be, a person should be able to know that you are fairly safe given of course Freddy Kruger is not around but that is an acceptable amount of risk. The way you describe it makes me want to go find a good 80s family movie to watch. Looking forward to seeing how the front yard turns out, and maybe add a nice veggie garden so the neighbor can get tomatoes or onions from there instead of knocking on your door like you owe them money. :)
very cool @jorlauski! It looks awesome... Its cool to see something go from nothing into something you can be proud of!
Now make sure you water the plants, it will make it much prettier if they blossom! :P
Is that a fountain in the corner? The 3 jugs that look like they are pouring into each other.
you certainly have an "eagle eye" - you're right it is an italian fountain and the jugs do pour water into each other. We've had this fountain for over 20 year and I've moved it more times than I would like to count. It's not actually connected to water or electricity - but with a little bit of extra work - we could bring this thing back to life. For now we just use it as decor. Thanks for checking out my blog post !
Wow, nice start @jorlauski
thank you - this is the type of style my wife and I like... hedges bore me too.. we live in Fresno , Ca .. on the edge of town we have much more work to do but are looking forward to it..