Total Transformation

For the last several months, the corner of my front yard looked like this. And believe it or not, this patch of dirt was an improvement over what was there previously... oh I wish I had a before picture! For years I hated my corner landscaping. Not only were the the evergreen bushes so big and overgrown, but there was this low evergreen ground cover that constantly had grass growing up through it. I kid you not, I would spend hours out on this corner pulling that grass, being so careful to get it by the roots, only to go out two weeks later to do the same thing. We even tried grass killer - my brother used an entire bottle to no avail. Well, last fall I was finally fed up with it, and paid a landscaper to pull everything out. By the time he actually did it, though, it was cold and even a little snowy on days, so I decided to wait for Spring to re-landscape it.

That day came yesterday, and I LOVE the end result! My landscaper brought in several yards of dirt and made a small berm in the corner, then added boulders, a clump birch, weigela, daylilies and other flowers, natural grasses, and permabark. Right now everything is pretty small, but I think it will grow in nicely.

You might also notice that a large plant/tree is now gone from the front corner of my house. I'm not sure what it was, but it was tall and prickly, and I don't think it really did anything for me, except scratch up my arms as we try to hang Christmas lights every year. Anyway, my landscaper cut that down and hauled it away for me too!

Kind of a cool side note that came out of this landscaping project - it initiated conversation with several of my neighbors! There are a couple neighbors that I've only met once who dropped by to see what kind of project I was doing and to comment on how nice everything looked. I have wanted to get to know my neighbors better, so it was nice to have this "ice breaker" topic. I am sure with the nicer weather that we'll all be outside more and have additional chances to talk.