The first thing we decided to tackle in the front yard was to replace the pine straw and shape the bushes. We checked out several other yards in the neighborhood. There was a pretty good mix of things: pine straw, rocks, and black, brown, and red mulch. Our favorite was the brown mulch. We thought it would match really well with the dark brown posts and shutters on the house.So off to Lowes we went!
We picked out Scotts Nature Advanced Scapes Deep Forest Brown Bark Mulch.
Each bag should cover 12 sq. ft. I guessed we'd need about 4 bags. Drew disagreed. He thought we'd need more like 12 bags. We decided to go with 6, since they were on sale 3 for $12.
After we got home, Drew started mowing while I went to work removing the pine straw. At first I was picking up bunches and putting them in trash bags. It was taking too long, so I started just throwing it in piles on the porch.
Drew was having lawn mower drama and had to run back to Lowes to exchange it. When he got back and noticed the huge piles of straw, he started seriously doubting my decision to go with fewer bags of mulch.
We kept pressing on. After I had it all piled up, I used a small rake to level the ground and gather any pieces of straw that were left behind. We used these smaller piles to fill in any holes in the beds.
Then we started to spread out the mulch. Drew slit the top of each bag open with a box cutter and dumped small piles throughout the beds. Using the rake again, I spread the mulch out, leaving it a couple inches thick.
After we got going, we quickly realized that Drew was right. Yep, I said it. Drew was right. We needed way more than six bags. Drew refused to go back to Lowes, so I went this time. I got nine more bags and picked up some hedge trimmers.
Luckily that was enough to finish the beds. While Drew finished spreading out the last of it, I started trimming the bushes. Note to self: Trim the bushes before laying down mulch. We had all kinds of little green leaves on that pretty brown mulch. Bummer.
And guess what, when I was trimming the bushes, we found a few plants we didn't even know were out there. Seriously.
No, the plants aren't perfect. I could probably do some more trimming, but I was scared to take too much off.
Ok, ready to see the difference?
Looks great, right? The dark color of the mulch just looks so rich and really makes the plants pop. Definitely a transformation.
Two things off the to do list!
- Weed & Feed the grass
Remove the pine straw and replace with mulchReshape the plants- Treat (or replace) the bushes flanking the garage
- Add edging stone around the beds
- Remove the two trees in the front? (I'm not a huge fan of their current placement. If we remove them, we'll replant them in the backyard.)
- Kill and remove all ant beds
- Re-stain the posts and shutters
- Add furniture, flowers, and accessories to the porch
- Spice up the beds (Our neighbor has solar lights and potted plants in her's, and it looks really cute.)
- Pressure wash the driveway, curb, sidewalk, house, and front porch
- Add house numbers
- Add some pizzazz to the garage door
- Add lanterns on either side of the front door to match the garage
- Address an issue with one gutter drain directing water under the sidewalk
- Add solar lights around the driveway, in beds
Now we just need to deal with the garbage situation in our garage. Garbage day is still 5 days away. Eek.
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