BEFORE
As I have said in previous posts, I am determined to get my back yard looking better this year. Seth was out of town for a few weeks so I decided to embark on a small landscaping project. I say small but it was very labor intensive. While he was away I dug out all the grass and prepped the area so when he came back we could finish. I knew I wanted a tree and Red Tip bushes and I designed it with that in mind.
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| The lovely look before |
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| Briggs Photo Bombing |
Here is where I created the shape I wanted and started tilling and removing the earth. We have an easement that's 2 feet wide along our back fences so I couldn't do anything with that. But we did cover it.
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| Ready to dig some holes (don't forget to dial 811) Even though I did, I still uncovered some wires. |
While digging on the first day I unearthed lots of things. One of the things that actually scared me was the snakes. I found 3 the first day! After my initial shock and wonder at how many snakes live in my yard without my knowledge, I moved them. Except the one I accidently killed because I didn't see it. Brigham wouldn't let me hear the end of it.
Digging the hole for the tree. It eventually became a much larger hole than that. Which was a pain since the earth was rock and clay and some other weird junk.
Then Seth came home :) We borrowed His brothers truck (thanks Dan) and went and got all the supplies we needed to actually make it look decent. I would love to have gotten a larger tree, but geeze trees are pricey! We went to several nursery's and home stores too look. I also was in search of larger red tips, but there were none to be found. So I had to get baby ones. At least they grow quickly. The one we bought last year for the front yard has tripled in size. We laid a layer of fabric weed preventative and then layered that with newspaper and mulch. Hopefully it will keep the weeds out. It did the trick in our front yard.
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| The Tree is planted! |
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| See how much everyone is helping? Me either |
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| Getting our mulch on |
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| These two were sooooo Helpful at making mountains out of the mulch bags |
By this point I was ready to be done, and excited too. It may not look like much but when you have been looking at nothing for 10 years its a huge change.
The final product! Those bushes will be huge, see those bushes on the other side of the fence? Those are red tips and they will get that big. So excited. It looks small from a distance but its actually about 20 feet by 8 feet. Finally, another project done...on to the next one :)
AFTER
