And This is Now

Last week for Wordless Wednesday I shared some photographs of a project I was doing on my side front yard. The first picture was the beginning of my project before I cut the bush down. The middle is all the roots I dug up and pulled out and the last shows the area leveled and my “template” on the ground. The ground was so hard and I couldn’t even dig it with the shovel. Our rototiller hasn’t been started in 2 years but I pulled it out and tried to no avail. Then I talked to God and Rich asking to help me get the strength to pull harder. It started and stayed running!

Many of you came up with ideas of what I might be planning to do and a few said a garden or planting something and another said a walkway. Well Kebba won with the walkway but the others that had the idea of a garden weren’t too far off either!

The Next Steps

The next step was to remove my template and lay the patio blocks down. Then I added stones in the area next to the garage.

Because the gate had been rubbing on the ground before I started my project I had to trim the bottom edge a bit but that went well. Now there is plenty of room to open and close it without rubbing.

Next was to add a bit of color and I hit the jackpot at Lowes. I got all these flowers on their clearance racks for $1.00 for each small one and $4.00 for the larger ones! Now the walkways on both sides of the driveway match!

Continuing on to the back

I just can’t leave things half done, I was ready to tackle behind the fence yesterday. Plus last week when Lia was over she said the front look nice but told me the back was very messy and I should clean it up. Okay Lia, that’s what I did. LOL I rototilled this section and raked it as level as I could.

I knew there would be an issue with a block where the front blocks went beyond the fence post so my plan was to get a different style blocks to put between the front and back under the gate. But it just so happened I had one block that had a corner broken so I took a chisel and carefully tried to cut it to make it work. Will it sorta worked but as I was chiseling the other corner broke. But have no fear I figured something out. The piece that broke I carefully pushed it back in place and the other end that didn’t fit snug against the fence post I just added a few small stones. Problem solved and when the gate is shut you can’t see the crack from the front.

Everything worked out perfectly as for the placement of the blocks, right up to the ones that butt to the garage side door. I put the rest of the stones down but since they were at the end of the pile they are smaller and had stone dust so a few more washings and that should be gone.

It took me all day to do the back section but I’m so pleased with how it turned out even though there are a few wiggly blocks but hoping in time they will settle. Front to back and back to front views.

The past three months

The past three months I’ve been working on the front yard, these are before pictures with 25 year old bushes that overtook the yard.

I stayed busy cutting the bushes and adding stone in the front of the house. I did hire a tree surgeon to remove the large holly bush, that was a bit too much for me to tackle. Then I thought I was done but one thing led to another.

I extended the stones along the side of the house and bit the bullet and hired a landscaper to level and lay the sod down.

And this is my front yard now, just another labor of love that I wouldn’t have been able to do myself if it wasn’t for Rich looking down and guiding me along.