After completing our yard, I have come to realize a few things about landscaping. First, it’s hard! It’s heavy, labour intensive work, typically in the heat, which kind of reminds me of my tree planting days, but let’s not go there. I tip my hat to landscapers after this project. Now, I can see why people hire professionals to take care of this area of the home. Albeit, I learned alot during this process, but if we had the money to hire, I would have done it in a heart beat. Nevertheless, let’s chat about what I learned, aside from the fact that it’s a dirty, dirty job….
1. Considering The Grading
Grading the yard is really important for water run off, and so planning your areas around this will be important. Due to our grade change, we had to add a step, which created a divide on the patio. This allowed us the ability to have two seating zones on the interlocking. Eventually, we will put in some soft seating for a lounging area.
2. Hire A Professional To Do The Heavy Work
Although Nick and I were ambitious to dig out our entire patio area, we quickly realized that it was near to impossible, not only physically, but we had no place to put the extra dirt. Because of this, we hired a company to come in with their heavy machinery to dig our foundation out. Not only was it some of the best money spent, it only took them 2 hours and removed 4 truck loads of dirt! Now where would we have put that if we did it by hand? Weigh out the pros and cons to hiring a professional. Sometimes it’s worth your time and money.
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| Taken from inside the house, I was so excited to see all the dirt gone. |
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| They removed 4 loads full! |
3. Be resourceful.
Try to source out gently used materials or plants. We were lucky to have the interlocking given to us because someone what tearing up their walk ways. Similarly, we used all the front garden plants and put them in the backyard. We will now enjoy them more often and the front will require less maintenance. Ask friends and family if you can take parts of their existing plants. Generally, people are happy to donate to those starting out.
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| We use to have a front garden, but it was just too much upkeep…soooo…. |
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| …we added sod instead and put all the rest of the plants into the back! |