Last summer when I was pregnant we would sit and rock on the porch after dinner. There were two things we would always talk about. Eli of course and also how we could get our yard looking better. Being from "up north" we weren't used to seeing pine straw used as ground cover so neither of us could get used to looking at it. So one day about 3 weeks ago Milan announces he is going to tear out the pine straw and lay down mulch. I don't know if you ever watch HGTV but there is a show on there where people start home projects and eventually call in an "expert" to help them finish because they got in over their heads. I suddenly found myself imaging that we would be going on that show because neither of us have a clue about doing yard work!
So off we go to Home Depot in search of the items we will need to accomplish this project. Being the planner that I am we first discussed the budget and what exactly we were going to buy. First of all we have no yard tools, second of all we have no truck to haul stuff home in and third of all I get super overwhelmed in those big stores. So anyway, we head out to the store. We buy some tools, 10 bags of mulch, and some weed blocker paper stuff for under the mulch. 10 bags of mulch looks like a ton so I am assuming it will cover at least one side of the garage. We get home and Milan starts his project. In less than an hour we are loading Eli back into the car so we could go back and buy more mulch and weed blocker. Clearly 10 bags of mulch is not a lot. Long story short... we ended up using 106, yes 106!, bags of mulch by the time we were done. It took Milan a total of 8 full days to complete this entire project. Which by the way started out as only replacing the pine straw with the mulch. In the end we tore out ugly bushes and replaced them with new ones, we planted annuals and perennials, we hung ferns, we put ferns in pots, I bought decorations for the front door, we put cushions on the rockers, we bought a new hose and reel, we laid pavers in the backyard, we put down edging, and we put down a ton of fertilizer and weed killer. The people working at Home Depot and Lowes knew our faces and just laughed when we returned for more mulch, weed blocker, and spikes to hold the weed stuff down. This is why we needed a truck! As for the budget, like any home project we went way over!
Just for the record I shouldn't say WE. I need to give 95% of the credit to Milan because with little Eli around I couldn't be of much help to him. Eli and I did lots of observing from the stroller and porch though. :)
Here is our front porch before. Cute but quite honestly... blah!
Eli and his Tata doing yard work.
Who knew pine straw was so heavy and cumbersome to remove? I can't even remember how many bags it took to remove it all.
Check back soon for the after pictures! I have a crying baby who doesn't think I need to be blogging!
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