Landscaping Phase #2

Last I showed you our backyard was lookin like this…

I had told you about the installation of the new drainage and the removal of the hedges.  We were left with a yard o’ dirt.  Then I came home the other day and I walked outside to this…

Ahhh! New magnolias and sod!  I can’t explain our excitement.  Let me show you around…

Take it all in people!

This grass is soft, like the grass we had in NY.  It is awesome to have something that is pleasant to walk on barefoot!

As I mentioned before we used Horizon Landscaping and they did an amazing job!

They were actually still working when I got home around 7pm.  They did such an amazing job, and they even stuck around to tell me how we should be taking care of the new trees and sod.  They were such polite guys and we are really impressed with their work!

We love that we still have lots of space in the yard with the new trees, yet they still block the neighbors in the back.  We will soon have some other updates back here, stay tuned!

Oh and of course some before and afters…

Lanscaping Phase #1

It has all begun. Brian from Horizon Landscaping chose a couple companies to complete some of the backyard projects that need to be finished before he gets going on the landscaping.  So last week, during the hottest week this year we had four guys out in our yard digging up trees and also digging trenches for the new irrigation.  I swear the heat index was like 110 degrees, poor guys.  They were here for about 7 hours and this is what we are left with…

They basically removed all of the hedges including all of their roots.  Also they added the much needed irrigation, including three drains that will remove the water from our backyard and let it drain out to the sewage system at the street.

Here is drain #1.

Here is #2 that Char man is checking out.

and #3.

Our yard is basically a big dirt pit right now, nothing pretty to look at.  It has to get a little worse before it gets better though!

Our yard does seems a lot bigger now without all of the hedges.

This is where the new magnolia trees will go.  We don’t necessarily want something so big in the yard, but we want the privacy from the neighbors, so the magnolias will be perfect.

We can’t wait for Brian to come out on Tuesday to plant the new trees and re-sod the yard.  We also are thinking about putting a garden in one of the corners back here and giving the fence a face lift.  Don’t worry we will keep you updated!

Yardwork Yo (backyard edition)

It turns out our hedges…

…..are trees.

Justin looked them up and it turns out they aren’t bushes/hedges, they are suppose to be trees.  The people who lived here before us let them get overgrown.  Justin trimmed them back and freed up the bottom branches, it makes the yard feel a little bit bigger. Yay! We can use all the room we can get.

Since installing the screen we are unable to mow the lawn right up next to the the patio.  We also cannot use the weed wacker because it would hit the screen as well.  Our solution is to take the sod out next to the patio…

Charlie really wanted to keep the dirt patch.

We decided it would be best to make it a garden.  It solves all our mowing issues. So off we went to Lowe’s for gardening supplies.

We picked up plants for the garden..

We got two different dog friendly plants.  We really had to search for something that would be safe if the dogs were to eat it.  Zack is part cow, so we plan on him taking a taste at some point. The first plant we went with is a…

Yup, you guessed it a Sanchezia.  I really love this plant, dog safe and my two fav colors(green and yellow).  Next up we got…

A shrimp plant pachystachys of course.  This one is dog friendly and went well with our leafy sanchezia friend.  We also picked up a baby magnolia tree to add to the empty side of the yard.

And lastly we got 20 bags of red mulch.

From there I dug up and edged around the newly discovered trees in our backyard.

Once I was happy with the edging, I started dumping in the mulch.

with all the mulch in…

While I was mulching Justin was laying the garden fabric for the plants near the patio.

I then set the plants on top in the spots that I thought they should go.

I tried my best to get them as even as possible, I wanted to get the tape measure out and make sure they were all the same distance apart.  Justin said I was nuts and they looked good where they were.

From there we made slits in the fabric and dug into the soil to plant the sanchezia and pachystachys.

Boom they’re in! Time to add mulch!

We continued the garden fabric and mulch around the corner where we will eventually add a plant of some kind in the corner(possibly a small palm).

Then Justin dug a pretty decent hole and planted the magnolia tree.

And we were finished…

Feels like a whole new backyard!