Mary mary quite contrary...

...how does your garden grow?

If you have been reading Steven's blog lately then you will know that we have taken on a fairly large landscaping project in our front yard. Ever since we have moved into our home almost 2 years ago (hard to believe, huh!) I have been wanting more landscaping installed. The builders installed a very small and simple bed in the front filled with 'crap plants' and we very quickly tore it all out and put new plants in after we moved in. I found upon doing all this that I really enjoyed gardening and wanted a much bigger bed in the front. About a year ago I came across do-it-yourself landscaping plans the Better Homes and Garden website and found one that would work perfectly with our yard...or so I thought!

Our next door neighbor just so happens to be a horticulturist and we are very good friends with them. So we sat down and looked over what I wanted and discussed the look I was going for (clean and manicured with yellows, oranges, reds and deep purples and a crepe myrtle tree). Helena then designed a bed with plants that are great for this region and would bloom at all different times of the year so there would always be a great showing of color, along with some great places for annual color that I will change out from season to season.

So last weekend we embarked on this very large task; which starts with marking off the area and then tilling up the grass and dirt. Once you have the ground completely broken up you have to clear it and then spray with Round-Up. She was telling me that all it takes is ONE piece of live grass to still be in there and after time we will have a grass infestation! We also wanted a nice rock border along this big bed, so we dug a trench and placed Austin Stone all along the border. This task was back breaking...some of these pieces of stone were over 12" long, so the trench that had to be dug was VERY deep in places! So we completed that last weekend.

This week has been spent plant shopping at these amazing nurseries and picking everything out. We also have planned an area of stone by the driveway that cuts the corner as well as a small stone pathway. So I have been going through the last of the Austin Stone and laying it all out and dry fitting all of the pieces to make create these last two features.

Tomorrow somewhere between 2 and 4 cubic yards of dirt and compost is going to dumped onto our driveway and we will begin filling in the bed and planting. The project should be complete this weekend!

Below is the garden plan; I will create a nice album of before, during and after pictures once the project is done.