Major Landscaping

[YSOSLO]

The wife and I started totally reworking the landscaping in our front yard. The former owners had a lot of rock around the house and in a couple of garden/planters. Digging out rock is tough, crappy, back-breaking work, so we hired a few guys to come in and clear it all out for cheap. Now that it's out, we're working on replanting everything and we're having a big piece-of-crap tree cut down and we've planted a fairly big tree near the stump of the old one, so we'll hopefully have some really nice shade in a few years. I'll have to get some pics up soon so you guys can check it out.

[ij1889]

ah man god luck, i hated gardening shit, never was really god at it, even tho im hispanic, must have jumped a generation, good luck.

[mndsm]

I remember those days. Digging rock and moving landscaping around was the biggest PITA on earth.

[dmention7]

Looking forward to some pics.

The previous owners of our house left us little bit of landscaping/flower gardens and I'm looking forward to doing a little bit of work out there..... once I figure out WTF I'm doing... hehe

[Picklz]

Landscaping is a lot of work thats for sure, I did a 3 layer high ring around my parents house of those decrotive retaining wall blocks, suckers are heavy. Good call on hiring someone to do the cleanup work and then putting the new stuff in yourselves. Looking forward to seeing some pics of what you ended up with.

[JustROLLIN]

Ugh... My mom has a "rock" garden, more like boulder garden actually and I had to help her rearrange it on mother's day. Needless to say I was sore for days afterwards.

[ZoomZoom Diva]

I remember those days. Digging rock and moving landscaping around was the biggest PITA on earth.

Agreed. I love gardening and lawn work (I did groundskeeping for 6 years), but digging up rock is one of the worst things...

[YSOSLO]

Ok, here's a couple "before" and "middle" pics of our pergola project out back. I'll post up some "after" pics this weekend and I'll try to grab some pics of the front now that we're getting closer to done out there too.

The way it was when we moved in (our stuff in the pic though)
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_aPYPSPYYNkU/SnuyppfbWqI/AAAAAAAACRo/ttjFMPf3BJI/s640/100_1770.JPG

And after the framework is up, but before the fabric goes on:
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_aPYPSPYYNkU/Snuy1jIIeII/AAAAAAAACRs/dP-6mEwfCS8/s640/100_2961.JPG

You'll notice our house has changed color too, although I have to pressure wash the nasty strip of crappy brown paint from the old header over the sliding glass doors and paint over the old stuff now that the pergola is about 18" higher.

[ij1889]

so... pool partay???

[LASERBLUE135]

so... pool partay???

dddddddddddddaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaammmmmmmm, someone's baller!

[WhiteSpy9]

+1

dddddddddddddaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaammmmmmmm, someone's baller!

[Big Nate]

I think you need to trim that unruly bush on the right side of the picture.

Looks great, did you also take that bush out that was next to your door to the garage??

[YSOSLO]

All the bushes on the right side of the picture are completely gone, and the ones on the left will be going eventually. Thanks for all the comments guys and Yes, I think a pool party is definitely in order in the near future. We'll have to figure out a good time for the majority and we'll do some grillin', swimming and perhaps roll in some mods/detailing in there as well. I'll take a look at the family calendar and post up a tentative event.

After all the rain this weekend, I definitely need to work on dealing with rain that's being caught in the fabric. I didn't get a chance to take any pics with the new fabric I've got up inside the framework in the 2nd pics, but I'll try to get some up tomorrow.

[YSOSLO]

Figured I'd post some follow up pics of what we did in the front. I failed hard at taking a bunch of "before" pics, but tracked down a picture of our house around the time we bought it. It was Winter, so it's a pretty crappy representation, but suffice to say, there was rock all around the house itself, there was a 15' diameter rock planter around some sort of big, but crappy, tree (not many leave and dropped some sort of brown furry-looking balls that weren't attractive at all) and a rock planter in the middle of the yard along the left side of the driveway.

http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/nn113/ysoslo/Misc/FrontView.jpg

We enlarged the big planter that was previously in the center of the front yard and put in all new bushes, hostas and ferns along with bark and edgers around the house. We also moved the planter that was centered in the lawn to the left of the driveway so it was right along the edge of the road and added perennials and a couple of bushes around the mailbox and pool waste pipe along the road, so it's a lot easier to mow and less trimming.

http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/nn113/ysoslo/Misc/SAM_0030.jpg
http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/nn113/ysoslo/Misc/SAM_0025.jpg
http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/nn113/ysoslo/Misc/SAM_0035.jpg
http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/nn113/ysoslo/Misc/SAM_0034.jpg
http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/nn113/ysoslo/Misc/SAM_0032.jpg
http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/nn113/ysoslo/Misc/SAM_0031.jpg
http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/nn113/ysoslo/Misc/SAM_0036.jpg

The stripes in the grass are courtesy of the Lawn Stryper I bought off amazon.com in a moment of weakness, but I really like the way it makes the lawn look. I think it takes it up a notch vs. a nice-looking freshly mowed lawn. Let me know what you guys think. By the way, I'm still planning on completely ripping out the big overgrown mess of bushes and the inoperable lamp post in the front yard, but there are a few things in the backyard we're working on right now that are taking a priority over that.

[1Kris06]

you haz nice house.

[dmention7]

Wait... you bought a device to make stripes in your lawn? I don't think we can be friends anymore.

[AJ]

YEah, very nice work Pete, the curb appeal is just fantastic with your changes!

[Big Nate]

Looks great.

But like Jay said lawn make pretty makers thing is a little weird.

[YSOSLO]

Thanks for the comments guys. Agreed on the Lawn Stryper. Like I said, it was purchased in a moment of weakness. Had I been *sober* I probably wouldn't have dropped $50 on it, but I think the look is cool enough that I'm not going to return it. It's easy to put on and take off from the mower, so it's not something I'm stuck using all the time. Overall I'm really happy with how well the bullet edgers turned out, and I like the natural look of the bark, even though it's an annual expense to keep refreshing it. I'm contemplating going with the rubber recycled-car-tire mulch to keep the natural look of non-rock, without having to keep putting a new layer on every year. It costs more up front, but will pay for itself after 5 years or so of not having to refill the bark. We'll see....