Hope everyone had a great Memorial Day weekend! Ben and I took advantage of the long weekend by landscaping our front walkway. This included a whopping 105 plants, three 450 lb. boulders and 2 dump trailers full of mulch. You can see how it took us most of the weekend. But hey its fun to play in the dirt. Plus I read on a sign once: “Gardening: cheaper than therapy.”
We were fortunate enough to have a landscape architect friend draw us out a beautiful plan. The plan is half the battle and extremely important, so we were very grateful to have it. It gave us the confidence going in knowing what we were planting would look great and all the plants would thrive in their conditions.
To get ready for the plantings, first we had to cut down the ugly spruce tree that was growing too close to the house.
Then we had to dig up and overturn all the garden beds. We rented a rotary tiller from Home Depot (3 hours for $40) to break it up and make it easier to dig. 
We got all the plantings at a wholesale nursery less than a mile away from our place. Which was good because it took 2 trips to get them home. Here they all are piled up in the driveway.
And now some before and afters!
Before:
After:
Seen above are cone boxwoods flanking the front door and 5 smaller boxwoods, which will create a hedge. In front of those are a bunch of happy returns day lilies which will bloom yellow.
Above are 6 knockout rose bushes and behind the boulder are 3 korean lilacs. We also made a new window box and filled it with trailing Calibrachoa.
Before/After of the path looking towards the driveway:
Before from farther back:
After:
The grass got pretty torn up while we were working on everything but we spread seed and it should look good in no time!
Before/After:
Before/After:
In the area above by the garage are burning bushes (which go red in the fall) in the back, then top spirea in the middle (they have a white bloom) and then a bunch of autumn joy sedum (bloom pink) in the front and on the opposite side of the walkway.
Before:
After:
The purple flowers above are May Night Salvias, more knockout roses behind those and then 3 hydrangeas on the corner.
Around the boulders above we transplanted a ground cover called vinca.
To go along with our beautiful new landscaping, I picked up a couple of wicker chairs at Target and a garden stool from Home Goods. The pillows we already had from World Market last year. In the pots are lavenders (smell so nice) and some hostas we transplanted.
We also planted some flowers in urns we already had. These were pre-made arrangements which we just transferred over, and for only $15/piece, it was cheaper than buying individuals and making our own.
We used the extra mulch to put around all of the trees in the front, which makes everything look a lot tidier.
While our backyard is still under disarray, we plan to spend quite a bit of time out here. Exhibit A: Ben relaxing with a cold beer after a weekend of labor.
And just for kicks, here is flash back of the house when it was overtaken by weeds when we bought it. Crazy!
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