Thomas and the kids applied all the mulch to the flower beds a few days ago and they did a great job especially considering that they had five huge beds to mulch. (They’re superheros)! I did help them a little because I wanted the beds edged before the mulch application and I didn’t want to add that to their hours-long list.
The front beds look pretty good although I do have to fill in with a few more flowers which I just bought today. I’ve learned that when you have beds that are as big as ours, you need to stick to one maybe two colors for flowers otherwise it just looks like a crayon box puked in your front yard.
The side beds need a little help and it’s on my radar, but at this point, I’m just happy to have the huge pile of mulch out of the driveway and in the flower beds. Besides right now, I have vegetable/fruit plants (zucchini, blueberry, cucumber) planted there so we’ll see how that goes. If it’s a bomb, then next year, it’s flowers.
I also got out my reciprocating saw and cut down a few dead trees that I was tired of looking at. Although it kind of blocked the mean neighbor behind us, the dead branches were too ugly. What I need is one of those huge bushes shaped like a guy mooning his neighbor. Maybe I should have asked for that for Mother’s Day… oh well, next year.
Here’s the before:
Unfortunately this is the only pic I had of the dead trees
Here is the after:
As far as the edging goes, my neighbors use landscapers and in previous years we’ve just dumped the mulch on the beds and called it a day, but I noticed that the landscapers dig a little trough around the mulched area to help keep the mulch in when it rains and this year I did the same.
I just took a spade-like shovel and dug all around the front of the where I wanted the trough to go then I dug around the back to make a “V” of dirt that I just scooped out.
It took a while, but I think it looks so much better having the mulch in a defined bed.
With a yard this size with all the flower beds, I really have to do something yard related a few hours a week (one hour a day is ideal)… but who has the time for that! So, I do what I can and ask for help with the hubs and kids over the weekend. Next on the to-do list for outside is to stain our new deck. I just picked up some stain brochures from Olympic and am deciding between a solid or semi-solid stain… Choices, choices.
