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Monday, July 19, 2010

Project Complete

I think one of the most satisfying things about owning a home is completing projects (and not having to hear babies cry at 3am or walk through geese poop everywhere). When we moved in, the flower bed by our deck was very incomplete. It was clear that the previous owners intended on working on it but stopped once they sold the house to us. In fact, they left a bag of mulch sitting in the middle of it.

Stacey and I renovated the garden over the course of two weekends. We started by raking up the existing mulch and evening the dirt out a little more. The next step unexpectedly took the longest - we found a stump on the right side. Instead of hiring someone to remove it, we dug it out. The problem was, one removed root lead to another, and another... I used every tool imaginable to get it out one piece at a time. I used my hand saw (thanks Mike), hedge clippers (thanks again), garden sheers, power drill, shovel, spade, a newly purchased hatchet - basically anything that would cut or dig. We finally got a satisfactory amount of it out, so we planted everything. The next step was placing the hexagonal stones (22lbs a piece) and digging enough ground out to make them level. After that, we spread this weed-preventing plastic sheet across the whole thing. Finally, we spread the old mulch with the new stuff on top of it.

When all was said and done, we got:
45 bricks
6 bags of mulch (to add to the one the previous owners left us)
wine rose plant
purple hybiscus bush
3 sets of lillies
spiral pine tree

We only spent $130-150, which I think is pretty good for a pretty sizeable gardening project.

BEFORE


AFTER


2 comments:

Adam said...

By the way, the next project is to power wash the deck and repaint it. It probably doesn't look bad from the photos, but it is chipping up everywhere and has some mildew stains.

Mikey D said...

Agreed; very satisfying.

It looks fantastic! And for just $150! Looking good at a great price! Glad some of my tools were of some assistance =).

Our previous owners did not tend to their garden as well. Like you know, we've spent a lot of time out in our yard as well. I don't know if you have the same feeling, but once you do one thing out there, you seem to find another that you want to do...like we need to redo our whole patio out back and level our walkway (you'll see next week). I have a feeling these outside projects may not just be one and done =).