The "Sweets" Life: Weed-Patch NO MORE!

Would you like to see those after pictures now?

If you've forgotten the travesty that was my front flower bed, let me give you this little reminder...

Thick grass bordering the sidewalk... nandinas planted on top of hostas (yellow, dead hostas that-is... because hostas do NOT do well in the sun, especially when your sprinkler system is broken), crazy outta control crepe myrtles, pathetically diseased rose bushes...

And where are the actual shrubs? Did the grass just eat them when it took over?

Enter The Skinner Brothers!

Truly could not have done what we wanted to do without them.

Ya see... we knew that what really needed to happen was that this entire mess needed to be dug up.

We needed to start over from about a foot below (where the shredded weed fabric put down by homeowners past had ceased to be any kind of a barrier against weeds.) Every last grass root needed to be removed and the entire thing needed to be re-planted.

That was a problem for us. Because... you see... Superman and I don't own a shovel (let alone two.) We don't own a wheelbarrow. We don't have the first clue about how to lay down weed fabric. Nor do we know how to plant actual plants once you've laid weed fabric down. We don't have a truck to haul dirt or mulch. As new homeowners, the top things on our list this year were a refrigerator, a kitchen table, and living room furniture. Shovels, wheelbarrows, and a trailer for mulch... that'll happen in a decade or so. (After the headboard, the dining room table, the guestroom bed, the grill, and the lawn-mower.) Gosh... home-ownership isn't for the faint of heart. There's a never-ending list of "stuff" you need.

So when I discovered that Michael and Jay not only have a truck and access to a tiller, but specialize in installing sprinkler systems, installing stone retaining walls, and landscaping... I was MORE than delighted to pay their extremely reasonable fee and just hand the job over to them!

And aside from all their expertise... it was great to know that while I was off at work they were getting this done in about three days time.

I tell you, not only did they do the job 1000x better than we could've done, but they did it in less than the time it would've taken us to procrastinate about going to Lowe's to look at potential plants! Where it would've taken us four months of Saturdays... they broke ground on a Wednesday and finished up that Friday.

I could not be more pleased!

Take a look!

A Clean Slate! (I was already jumping for joy when I saw it at this stage.)

(When you first saw this, did you think it was the after picture? Haha!!)

Then they began laying the stone border.

(I selected this mower-edge style from the Bennett Brothers Stone company's website.)

And on the final day, they planted all the lovely plants I had chosen at Lowe's. Of course, they had awesome suggestions about plants that do particularly well in this climate, and about color combinations that look nice together. They even found the plant I'd been wanting for over a year from Martha Stewart magazine! No one I knew had ever heard of a Chinese Snowball... but Michael and Jay found me one!!

(By the way, we bought the plants small because its less expensive... so if they don't look quite at home yet its because they haven't grown into their space. But they will!)