Landscaping Before and After

Since the interior of our house is pretty much complete (with the exception of the baseboards and some light fixtures) and the weather has warmed up, we have started working on the exterior. So far, we have planted some grass in the front yard where there were lots of bare spots due to the previous caretaker using Round Up rather than weed eating. We also pulled out the old "landscaping" in the front of our house and replaced it with new.

When we first looked at the house, the front bushes were ridiculously overgrown. In fact, it wasn't even possible to get in the front door at that time. Pretty much as soon as we took possession, my dad came over and helped pull them out with chains and his truck. Then we were left with a gravel bed (I know, who uses gravel for landscaping?) with some plastic weed mat sticking out that looked like trash bags blowing around. Bricks were used as edging.

Once the weather warmed up, we scooped out all the old rock and removed the weed mat. Brett tilled the area and we put down new weed mat and planted some boxwood bushes (which will grow to 2-3 feet) and asiatic lilies. We covered it with dark brown mulch and added some solar lights that we had gotten for Christmas. Brett later added edging that is made out of some type of composite material that isn't supposed to rot.

We had also taken off the old shutters and repainted the mailbox a while back. After the landscaping, we removed the old iron porch railing. Eventually, we want to add some traditional white slatted shutters and a white vinyl porch railing. But for now, this facelift is pretty refreshing.