DIY Landscaping

When we purchased our house just over a year ago, we felt really lucky to have such an amazing lot. We have a great front and side yard, but the real treat was the huge backyard. Eric and I both grew up in suburban/rural areas, so we were used to having a lot of space. We couldn’t wait to have family and friends over to barbecue and enjoy the hot tub we inherited (after scrubbing it with bleach).

We decided that we wanted to tackle the two islands flanking the back patio. Both islands were overgrown and had a lot of dead space in them. We decided to work with the plants and general shape of the island that were already there.

We trimmed all of the plants, re-defined the island by edging the outer corners (which was a really hard job that I left up to Eric), layed down weed barrier fabric (we used this) to prevent weeds from growing and purchased some new plants to fill in the empty spaces.

We purchased four Hosta “Autumn Frost” plants, which we dispersed throughout the two islands. We put three plants in one island and one plant in the other island. The great thing about Hosta’s is that they grow fast. By next year, I am hoping for these to double in size. If they grow too large for this island, I can even transplant part of the plant to another area. This makes for smart, easy and inexpensive landscaping in the future.

Once we edged the islands, planted the Hosta’s and layed down the weed barrier fabric, we needed to decide what kind of mulch we were going to use. Most people either use bark chip or mulch. The only problem with using these materials is that they degrade and need to be replaced on a yearly basis. We wanted a more permanent, less wasteful and more cost effective solution. We looked at a lot of other materials including gravel and lava rock, and ultimately decided to use Vigoro Rubber Mulch in Mocha Brown (you can buy it here).

I was a little skeptical at first. Would my entire patio smell like rubber? Will this really last? Won’t this just look like chewed up tires sitting in a pile in my backyard? But, I was pleasantly surprised! There is no rubber smell and this material had an extended life span. The mulch also looks just like the dark brown wood mulch that most people buy. In fact, it looks even better because it has a slight sheen to it, giving it that wet look that is so appealing on outdoor spaces.

While we were at the nursery, we also picked up some colorful flowers to put in a plater. Flowers are a great way to dress up an outdoor area and add a pop of color. I am notorious for not being able to keep plants alive, but I wanted to try my hand an outdoor flowers, since most of my failures have been with indoor plants. We filled the planter with topsoil about halfway, placed the flowers a few inches apart and backfilled the space with more topsoil.

Tip: Try using the local topsoil that your nursery sells, we saved about 50% on every bag we bought in comparison to the name brands.

With proper watering, these flowers lasted all summer, so I finally broke my flower killing curse! Landscaping is a lot of work, but had we hired professionals to do this, it would have cost a lot more. We feel very accomplished. Now we just need some patio furniture…

Here’s a recap on what the islands looked like before:

And here is what the islands look like now:

Stay tuned for what we did to that ugly wood fence seen in the background.