Outdoor Updates!

Spring is officially here in Austin, and the weather has been so beautiful. Aaron decided to take three days off from work over Spring Break while I was home from school, and we had the perfect project in mind- our front yard's landscaping. And it turned out to be more fun and rewarding than we even hoped! As soon as we were done we got the itch for another outdoor project!

The first thing we knew we wanted to conquer was these darn holly bushes that line the way between the sidewalk and the side of the house coming up to the front door. There were a few reasons why we wanted to change that area up. For one, the bushes were prickly, ugly, and half dead. There were some really nice (and expensive!) landscaping rocks underneath the bushes, but that meant that every piece of trash that flew our way and about a million leaves from our yard nestle in there and never come out. Also, the bed area was lined by some railroad-tie wood, which was rotting and had termites... ew, talk about the creeps.

So, Aaron started out by removing the bushes which took a few evenings.. those suckers were really in there good. I moved a large portion of the rocks down to the little patch of "grass" (all that will really grow there is weeds) between the sidewalk and the street in front of our house. Those rocks look so much better there than the weeds that were there before. Getting the railroad ties out was pretty easy, so after a few days of prep we were ready with a blank canvas!

We also removed the railroad ties around the other shrub that was to the right of the sidewalk.

The plan was to edge with limestone pavers. Limestone is a really pretty, naturally occurring rock here in Central Texas. We actually dug up several large limestone rocks when taking out the bushes and planting. We just cleaned them up and used them in the landscaping, I think they add a little something! We bought a few plants out at The Natural Gardener (which we can't recommend enough) and the rest, as well as the pavers and soil, at Home Depot.

We arranged the pavers, which was really easy. Aaron was able to break the ones we needed to using his drill and a tile bit. It worked great. We mixed Scott's topsoil, composted manure, and some native Texas soil up in the bed, and then all that was left to do was plant!

As for what plants we got, we tried to get a combination of low, full ones and also some that will grow and add height. We aren't big "shrub people". We got sweet broom, an indian hawthorne, begonias, jasmine on a trellis, a gardenia, trailing verbena, a mountain laurel, a lily of the valley, and a bulbine. 

The first weekend after we planted, there was a HUGE monsoon like rainstorm and we don't have gutters. Which meant water was flooding off the roof into the bed and while I'm sure the plants loved the moisture, all of the clay underneath the soil rose to the top, so we decided to add three bags of mulch to the top.

We spent around $200 on the pavers, plants and flowers, trellis, soil, and mulch. We pretty much love the way it turned out and I personally think we've already inspired a few neighbors to take control of their hot messes of yards. That's always a good thing!

Here's a before and after of the front of the house: