We are constantly updating the yard one small step at a time.
2010 : Goal – Get rid of all the weeds, put in mulch and plant as we go. When we first bought the house we had 3′ high thistles everywhere! We transplanted a LOT of hastas (over 15!) this year, some from my mother and grandmother’s gardens.
2011: Fence Area (you’ll see in another post)
2012: Break – drought year, try and take care of the plants we put in in 2011.
2013: Continue updating – most of the country had a drought in 2012 and we didn’t realize the damage that was being done to our trees. This year we need to remove and replace all the cedars that we put in in 2010. We are also going to need a major regrading of our back yard. A few weeks ago we had the worst flooding in the 3 years that we’ve lived here. Well, that will be the last time! We usually flood 2-3 times a year, but we have been able to contain the damage. Not this time; we needed to rip out all the carpet that was in the basement. The water was coming in from every angle and by our 20th shop-vac full of water we gave up. More to come as I we have just started getting quotes for this massive project.
2010 Before & After: Retaining Wall
Parts & Pieces: We removed the rotten wood and replaced everything with the stone, added mulch and transplanted the hastas to the backyard.
Stone Brick: Menards. It’s too bad they no longer carry this brick, we would’ve loved to use it in other places in the yard!
Black Mulch: Menards. The best price is $2.25 a bag on sale.
Tree/Plants: The tree was there, it just took my Dad “freeing” it with a chainsaw from the overgrown weeds to have it look beautiful again.
Front of the House part 1:
Parts & Pieces: Removed the red bricks and took away the “fluffy” bushes to add low-lying more modern bushes and fountain.
Fountain: Stein’s (another Midwest Home & Garden store)
Bushes: Home Depot: Mid-season clearance only $20 per bush (1 gallon juniper bushes). I will definitely make sure these to not get over grown like the fluffy ones we took out.
Front of the House part 2:
Parts & Pieces: Replace the red/tan brick with the same stone used in the retaining wall, added new plants, bushes and black mulch. I tried to be thrifty by putting in an affordable and smaller Japanese Maple, but by 2011 the sedums I planted were already growing taller then the tree.
Lesson Learned: You can’t always put smaller more affordable trees next to plants that could outgrow it in a year or two! Sometimes you need to spend the money to make it look better, you can’t always get everything on clearance. A loving lesson from the Hub-E!
Back Yard by the Shed:
Parts & Pieces: Created designated walking areas with the different colored mulch and hastas. Transplanted many hastas from the front and received others from my Mom and Grandma’s house. Took the random stone from various places it was found throughout the yard. I wish I had better pictures of this, but you will see more updated picture in the 2013 post coming soon!
I’ve learned and I’m still learning a lot about gardening from my Mom…the transplant queen! 🙂 She brought me bags of hastas, irises and bleeding hearts all of which she dug up and split from her yard for me! Thanks mama-bears!!
This yard had so many weeds and overgrown weed-trees that we need to rent a special dumpster to haul it all away! We filled the dumpster in a few hours and needed to break it down every half hour or so to make it worth our money!
Part & Pieces: Ensure you are prepared to thank family and friends at the end of a hard day (in the hot July sun) with an ice cold Miller Lite. 🙂
Emodel your home 