With our builder house came builder landscaping.  This consisted of one (evergreen and shrub)  mulch bed along the porch and a northern pear tree in the front yard.  It was a great landscape foundation and all the plants were in good shape.  However, we were lacking some curb appeal (nearly every house in our neighborhood has a lone pear tree in the front yard).  I have always wanted more trees and shrubs to soften the vinyl siding and straight lines of our house while Handy Hubby has always wanted nice plump mulch beds with deep edging to make his push-mowing easier.  This spring was the season of adding on…to our landscaping, that is. 

Let’s take a look at some befores, shall we?  (If you look closely, you may see the spray painted outlines of future mulch beds and small white flags indicating tree placement)

Front of house, facing east

South side of house

Back of house, southwestern side

Back of house, northwestern side

Northern side of house

Let’s not forget The Man Shed which is in the northwest corner of our backyard and faces east

…or the open yard just south of The Man Shed…

After consulting with 3 reputable landscapers and receiving 3 very different designs/estimates, we actually settled on the design of one landscaper but had it installed by another landscaper.  We did this to save money.  And I’m talking a substantial amount of cash.  The landscape design was from a higher-end landscaper but their estimate was waaaay out of our price range.  We bought the design from them and had another landscaping company install it for a price that was right in our price range.  And by paying cash, we were able to slash the cost another 10%!!! 

Wanna see the afters?  Here ya go… (in the same order as before)

Extended mulch beds with birch tree, dry stacked stone walls, lollipop crabapple tree (can barely see it behind the existing pear tree)

Mulch bed containing grasses, evergreens and burning bushes (one was transplanted from the front of our house) to camoflauge utilities

Mulch bed with boxwoods, weeping cherry tree, buckthorn shrub, lemondrop cypress and knockout rose bushes

Mulch bed with transplanted buckthorn shrub, knockout rose bushes, magnolia tree and boxwoods

Mulch bed with grasses flanking the roll-up door

A schubert plum tree to add shade in the backyard

It took a landscaping crew (of 5) 2 days to knock out the job.  Handy Hubby could have DIY’ed it (in fact, we considered it) but in the end we decided to hire out for our landscaping.  I’m glad we did…it took all 5 guys’ muscles to set the birch tree in the front…after they removed a boulder from the very spot it was to be planted.  So far, we are extremely happy with their work.  They went above and beyond what we asked for.  (The owner even gave Layne, our older son, $1 because he “helped” spread the topsoil with his toy tractor.)  They tied in all the downspouts to corrugated pipes that run under the mulch and out onto our lawn.  This helps to keep mulch from washing out while watering our grass at the same time. 

I’m already envisioning what the landscaping will look like once “grown in” a few years down the road.  Until then, we are following strict care guidelines to establish our new earthly friends’ roots.  They require a lot of water the first 2 weeks.  With all the rain (and NO SUN) we’ve had lately, we haven’t had to water them by hand too much.  In fact, I’m afraid a few of the evergreens are getting a little water-logged.  I sure hope the sun returns soon to dry them up!  In case my prominent black thumb decides to rear its ugly self, all the new plants are guaranteed for 1 year by the landscaper.  Whew!  In the meantime, does anyone out there have any experience with caring for new landscaping?  Any suggestions or tips?  Have you planted anything lately?  Check back later to see how I upped the ante for more curb appeal…