Outdoor : Flower Bed Makeover

Lets take a stroll down memory lane.

So that is where we left of. The evolution of a front yard flower bed from the day I purchased my house until, well, last weekend.

If you’ll remember, I had/have great intentions for these flower beds and their edging.

Lets get to it then. 10 more bags of mulch (we are now up to 25 total) and a bit of sand and rock and I got busy one Saturday afternoon.

I needed a way to suffocated all the weeds that were planning on growing the second after I put down mulch. So many times I have heard that the weed barrier lining you can get from a local hardware/landscaping store is a bad idea. Namely because it is hard to add plants after you have laid it down. Considering my flower bed isnt complete on the planting side I knew I needed another option.

Newspaper is a natural weed barrier and composts nicely into your flower beds. One thing to note is not to use the glossy adds. I only used the actual newspaper – where the color is printed with soy (who knew?!) and not the inserts.

I will tell you, adding the newspaper made my job double in time but thus far it has been well worth it. I also found you end up laying a bit thicker layer of mulch when using the newspaper because the last thing you want is to be able to see what is on sale poking through your plants.

Same day, before and after. Crazy what a few (5) newspapers and some (12) bags of mulch can do.

Now lets talk edging. To save a few pennies I decided to put in sand before adding the rock. One bag of sand goes really far…. one bag of rock… goes nowhere. For my entire edging I have found out I will need 4 bags of sand and….. 10 bags of rock. Here's why:

I have a weird nuance with the black edging showing through the rock and thus it is going to have to spill over the edging on both the mulch and yard side. My current fear is that the grass is going to grow all over the yard side rock and not be able to me cleaned up when they come to mow. But alas, I have made it this far and cant stop now. It really will look amazing once its all said and done. Its just a matter of getting it said and done

Here is where I left it Saturday afternoon.

Considering this is where I started almost two years ago – I think its come a long way.

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Outdoor : Flowerbed Edging

Its been awhile since I have given any big house updates. Nothing that I am doing is all that interesting right now – I mean who wants to read about insulation?

One thing I am winging and DIYing is the edging of my front flower beds.

You'll remember this is what my yard looked liked when I bought my house a year and a half ago.

Then I removed that lonely bush and tilled up two flower beds on either side of the front door…

Since then I have had a tree come and go and plants added. I also enlisted a local lawn company to come out and fertilize which made a huge difference in the lawn.

Here is the problem though, I never could decide what kind of edging I liked for that flower bed on the right side (the left is blocked by sidewalk). It has gotten to the point that I pull weeds and grass out of these beds MULTIPLE times a week and can never seem to keep up.

Lately, I have been traveling on the weekends for weddings and such, so it was a must I take advantage of this weekend to get a bit done.

First up dig a new “ditch” to outline the flower bed.

This was easy peasy – I just took a shovel and dug about 6 in down all the way around the border of the bed

Note the obscene amount of weeds/grass – I sprayed roundup on them right before digging my border.

Next comes the edging.

My mom and I talked through a few options but I ended up settling with a rock border of sorts. However, you cant just pour rocks into your ditch and call it a day, your flowerbed and your sanity need something to hold the rock in place and block the grass/weeds.

My flower bed isn't huge but this roll of 60ft of plastic edging did the trick. Because I need a barrier for the rock I bought two rolls of edging (120ft) – one that lays against the yard and one against the flower bed.

Cut those plastic straps and lay out the edging – the sun will warm it up and keep it from coiling as much.

After laying it out grab your stakes and go to town pounding that edging in place. Make sure and space the stakes 6ft-ish apart. Some spots for me were closer than others because of the curves

For my 60 ft of edging I used 12 stakes – in total I bought 24 (a grouping of 12 for each side)

This goes pretty fast so don’t worry about it taking all day. It took me about an hour to get both sides laid in.

If you are using just the edging and not filling with rock you wont need two sets.

Its not perfect or finished by any means, but it’s a start. You’ll notice it doesn’t look perfectly straight and that’s okay. I am going to fill the gaps on the lawn side with dirt and the gaps on the flowerbed side with mulch.

Next up is pulling the, now dead, weeds/grass and adding new mulch. After the mulch is added then I can fill the ditch with rock.

The black edging will be covered with rock – all the eye will see is mulch//rock//grass

Here are a few examples:

What do you have edging your flowerbeds? Brick? Stone? Nothing but plants? Do tell!

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Life : In her element

Can you tell my camera has been glued to my hands lately? I go through these phases where I capture everything and then there are moments when I am a bit burnt out and my phone suffices.

This little lady has found her element, outside. She begs to go outside just as Murphy begs to come in. I never felt comfortable letting her roam because we live in a neighborhood with cars driving down our street pretty frequently. I just imagined all the bad things that could happen... and the vet bills that would add up. 

She loves it so much though, plus she has gotten really good at staying fairly close. Her favorite is to be let out the backdoor and hop the fence and come in through the front door. Such an odd duck.

I sure am missing that sweet face this week though. A large part of me thinks she's reveling in the absence of Murphy, though. 

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Life : Thats where I come from

I'm home in Texas for the week to shoot two weddings with my most favorite business partner and friend. Sunday my eyes were tired and my arms weak but all for a great reason. Cannot wait to share some of the wedding pictures with you! 

Enjoy these shots of my parents back yard. Gorgeous isn't it? My mom and dad really enjoy spending time making their yard so beautiful and I really enjoy... well enjoying it!

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