We have nearly completed a landscaping project that I have wanted to do for the last two years! It looks so great, and I can't stop admiring it. We have done SO much home improvement this year on a strict budget, and I am very proud of our efforts.
I really want to the house to look as gorgeous as it possibly can, but we all know that requires time, energy, and most of all money. We knew this corner garden area could be beautiful, but we needed to do it on the cheap BIG TIME. So, I started researching on Pinterest about rock gardens. I thought they were really lovely, zen, peaceful, and affordable. Also, because our home sits on a hillside, we need something HEARTY. We cannot be redoing this every few years and messing with weeds constantly. Every time I would look out my window I would seriously want to yak at all the weeds and nettles...a literal witch garden. So, we CHANGED IT :D
See pics below for the BEFORE:
We looked at a lot of ideas online and realized we really wouldn't need much in the way of supplies....
Our first step was going and getting some weed block fabric. We already had some in the garage. It's really cheap and does wonders. You cover the ugly with it and then you can put your mulch, rock, etc. on top. You can find it at any home improvement store in the garden section.
Because my hubby is a farmer, we do have access to tools and machinery that most folks don't. But, I am thankful because it enables us to do more ourselves. The only thing we got from someone else was a load of river rock from our friend who owns a landscaping company which he delivered to our home. We measured, but still ran short because we decided to do a little more than we originally planned. Once we started we couldn't stop. We will have to get a second load of rock to finish the project all the way. But that's ok because river rock only costs $150 for a big load.
We also have access to some really big rocks that were picked from farm fields. My husband used the Kabota and farm skid steer to go over and pick up the big field rock. We used that to create our borders. They were really heavy to move, but we worked together as a family to get the rocks in place. We also bought several bags of mulch to refresh the entire area and existing landscaping.
Our first step was getting the big rock borders into place. We also put big rocks throughout the landscape area to hold things in place. You simply cut the fabric and lay/wrap around anything (like shrubs or bushes).
In the pictures below, you can see the border between the front of our house and the new corner rock garden. We used the big field rock there and delineated with new mulch. We also pruned all shrubs and I used bleach water and a sponge to clean that pesky mold off the side of the house.
After we had laid rock borders and landscape weed block fabric, we brought over the load of river rock with the skid steer.
As you can see above, we had to use a shovel and pail to transport rocks to the house. The closest we could come to the house was to the big rock border. This was hard manual labor. It wasn't difficult to set the rocks in place, just a lot of back and forth with shovel and pail. But, the end result was well worth the effort it took.
Once we got all border rock, landscape fabric, and river rock in place, the result was instantly beautiful!!!
Our last step (which we are still in the middle of), is adding some greenery among the rocks. I had a friend who was giving away some ferns for FREE! And what's better than cheap? FREE! So, we went to her home and loaded up a bunch of ferns. We need to get a few more to fill in some more space. We also had some iris, hasta, and day lilies all on site that we used for cuttings to put in the new space. I have also ordered some new Asian inspired decor to complete this very Zen like space.
The whole project took us about 6 hours. Not too bad considering the transformation. I look forward to continuing to tweak and beautify this area. We are so happy with the rock garden idea that we are going to continue to use the method around our pool house which is also surrounded by weeds as it sits in the middle of a wild field. All in all, I think we have chosen a landscape method that is going to be in place for years and give us all more peace as we look out the window or around the corner of our house.