Easy stuff first.
We hung some ferns. That was easy huh?
On the back support deck beams we decided to hang some ferns. Mostly because I got them for $3 each at a Lowe’s clearance sale…and partially because we need to get something classy back there with our blue lawn chairs, multicolored baby swing and random balls. Yup. With the plastic containers and the tag still attached, now it’s totally classy 🙂
The black metal support brackets were $5 at Walmart by the way. So this was a sixteen dollar update.
Next update…the wall.
Actually we call it the dropoff. I was terrified of this thing. Literally I would have nightmares of Will walking right over the edge and dropping to a broken neck. And this momma needs her sleep. otherwise I am ready to kill everyone. either way, in my mind someone was gonna get hurt…and I didn’t want that to happen.
Check out this drop…scary, huh?
I think Will knows the word DANGER now because I said it a bazillion times whenever he got sixteen yards near this thing…and I would bumrush him and tackle him to the ground. I’m not kidding.
So I talked Jeremy into getting an easy-to-install decorative fence. It’s not baby-proof by any means…but a visual barrier goes a long way when it comes to toddlers. And in the long run we plan on getting bunches of plants to go on both sides…to create even more of a wall.
It wasn’t cheap. Each panel was on sale for $25 and the posts were $8. Of course, we didn’t buy enough the first time around so we ended up paying the regular price of $30 per panel after the first five. That added up fast.
On the plus side, it was super easy to install…and it really didn’t take much – just a sledgehammer to knock the little bracket thingies into the ground before lining up the holes on the panels to slide the post through.
The fence really helps with peace of mind. No more bumrushing…unless I wanna.
All in all, it wasn’t the best looking option…and we installed it in a hurry so we probably will be redoing this in the future…but to be honest, having something up NOW is more important to us than how it looks.
And the good news is – Will stays away. I’m sure he’ll challenge the durability of the installation at some point but thank goodness he doesn’t find the fence even remotely interesting. WHEW!
Oh and for those detail folks….we installed it about three feet away from the wall. I figure those future plants will fill up that space and put a little color up there…when we save enough for plants. Which leads me to my next point…why are plants so expensive?!
More updates – let’s move to the front, shall we?
The front of the house when we moved in….note the weird dying stick in the front yard.
We believe it was a japanese maple…but we could be wrong. And the grass had crept into the circle making it, well, less like a garden bed and more like bad gardening.
Soooo way back in March, Jeremy dug it all out. He had a little help.
Cole actually used the shovel as more of a slider…as he didn’t actually pierce the ground but instead slid the shovel on top. It was totally endearing when he looked up and told me that “this was man’s work” and then asked me to bring him a drink 🙂
As of April, the circle looked a little more defined…but obviously there were other yard fish to fry…like the lack of landscaping next to the house.
So the bed looked like this for a long time.
Will found it to be a wonderful playspot…and in the words of Ana, this pile of dirt was a great babysitter.
I’m pretty sure he also told me that what he was doing was man’s work and I needed to bring him a drink 🙂
Then came the sticker shock of plants. You know how I was griping about the cost of plants? Yes – it is directly because of this middle circle. I couldn’t get over it. $30 per plant?! In the words of Avril Lavigne “WHAT THE…”
Long story short – after our expensive fence purchase we had little to spend on plants. Safety first! So we improvised. We discovered some fully grown plants tucked off to the side of our property….ones that were big bushy and beautiful…but not getting much attention.
So Jeremy headed out there to peel back the landscape fabric and dig them out of the cement. Literally. We have discovered it doesn’t rain here. like ever. and our ground is likened only to concrete.
Fifteen hours and five bushes later, we had the start to the center island. I found some clearance plants at Walmart (marked down 50% off!) and we put those three in there too. I highly recommend Walmart for cheap plants…they aren’t advertised…just sometimes you will see a yellow sticker on the pot marking them down.
Oh and did I mention the weeds started coming back? Yeah. Not cool. Especially after I did all that work…you know with the drink fetching. A little landscape fabric and pine straw later….
We have this:
Eventually we want to get a couple big rocks to put out there…but for now it totally works. And looks a lot better than a dead stick. Well maybe not to some people…but to us, we prefer the shrubbery. And that my friends is the outside updates. Have ya’ll been doing anything outside lately?
I am in awe of the size of your yard. After growing up on a farm in Indiana, my husband and I just bought a postage stamp with a house on it in Dallas. I love having our own home, but I miss the space of a huge yard!
Bummer about the weeds coming back. We had a swing-set in a sandbox growing up and there were always weeds in it – no matter how often we pulled them out. Very annoying.
The outside is looking great! You should search around on Craigslist for cheap plants. Remember how YHL posted an add where people could take the shrubs for free as long as they removed them themselves (post wedding)? Maybe someone near you wants to get rid up their garden, too! It’s worth a shot.
You can also throw some seeds in planters and move them to the ground next year after they’re a little bigger.
It all looks great Katie! I would totally recommend putting some hydrangea plants in that space between the fence, that would be beautiful! And they are very low maintenance they just need lots of water. And that looks like a good spot, not too sunny they like some shade.:)
Have you ever tried looking at the Grower’s Outlet in Loganville for cheap plants? I know they now are closed for the summer, but will reopen in August. http://www.growersoutlet.com/
It makes my day to see updates from you! (And I’m hoping that in the busy-ness of the next 8 weeks, we’ll still hear lots from you!)
Good call on the transplanting of shrubs you already have. That’s on my “want to do” list, but I’m scared I’ll kill ’em. The former owner of our house was a landscaper (who still does business in the neighborhood), so I’m always embarrassed to imagine what he and the neighbors are thinking about the decline of our yard.
2 Questions:
Do you mow your own lawn?
Can you reach those ferns to water them?
Your yard looks awesome! Such a toss-up between a dead stick and green shrubbery…hmmm:) Plants are expensive, yo! Sticker shock every time I go! Probably explains why we don’t have any…that and the fact that I don’t have a green thumb at all!
Seriously…can Cole be any cuter?!?! Lucky Aunt you are!!
Note to self: Must get a pile of dirt for my 15 month old.
Ha…I can totally understand your situation. I grew up with a huge yard in Wisconsin {miss the midwest more than I ever thought I would…especially in the heat of summer! ha!} and we are in Dallas…postage stamp describes ours perfectly….ugh.
I am incapable of keeping ferns alive. Seriously, out of all plants, ferns are the ones I kill. I even killed our love fern. Luckily our love didn’t die with it.
Everything looks great, Katie! I love the ferns and this is totally the time of year that I buy plants. Especially Wal-mart. Your house is gorgeous! Good luck on all of your updates! Wow, that wedding is coming up fast!
Yes, plants and landscaping can be crazy expensive! Our place was abandoned for a few years before we got a hold of it, so we had no lawn/plants/etc at all.
We have made some great headway in our plantings this year-last year, our first here, we only sodded and hardscaped a bit. It’s a tedious process, but worth it in the end.
I’ve also found that annuals from seeds( just put em in the ground in spring) go a long way into filling up those bare spaces early on-sweet peas and zinnias are easy, as are sunflowers and morning glory vine 🙂
PS-we have a local tree farm/sod farm/grower that we get almost all of our stuff from-VERY reasonable prices, too ( like 6 bucks for a one gallon shrub size)-maybe there is one in your area?
And now the words “Danger Will Robinson” are playing over and over again in my head 🙂
The front looks great and yes – plants are outrageously expensive. I feel bad though – we tore out a ton of holly bushes (that housed tons of bees) and I’d have gladly given them to you but, you know, you live hundreds of miles away…
I hope your ferns really take off for you. The circle out front looks fantastic!
It was all we could do to just mow our grass last night – it was 97 degrees with 80%+ humidity and miserable!
I know the post was about outside updates, but all I could focus on was the cuteness of will’s belt! Ahhh a belt on a little toddler? Too cute!
Love it Katie! We also had to start from scratch with our landscaping. The previous owner loved TONS of bushes – riddled with spiders I might add – that obscured the house. So we ripped them all out, including some trees that had damaged the rain spout. Then I attempted to fill in those spots with annuals – yeah, right! The area was so big and plants so expensive that the small annuals I planted looked lost! It was years later before we got real landscaping in by a friend – and paid a fortune for the plants but planted ourselves. Still not happy with choices I made but slowly exchanging things out for perennials so hopefully we won’t have to pay a fortune for annuals every year! Good luck with everything!
Yes – we mow our own lawn and we just pop the hose up there to water the ferns…pretty standard stuff I think 🙂
xo – kb
Not yet but I can not wait to try them out!
xo – kb
I recently did a landscape project and realized that you’re right plants are super expensive. The nursery near our house was charging $50-$80 for a decent size plant which was out of our budget since we needed quite a few. A friend of ours told us about a farmer’s market that comes to town early early early Saturday mornings. I wasnt excited about getting up at 4am to look at plants but we were able to get 15 plants (thats about all our car could hold) for the price of 3 plants at the nursery. I guess if you buy directly from the farmers off the back of their trucks you can get a better deal. I wonder if your area has something like that? It might be worth asking around.
Your yard is looking so good! Reading your blog always makes me smile. I sent an email a while back (I’m sure it’s lost in the hundreds) about how you guys are handling the bigger space and the cost of filling that space. We bought a house that is 1000 sqft bigger than our last and our yard is about 1/2 acre larger too. It didn’t seem that extravagant until we started trying to fill the spaces inside and out. And the plant costs have nearly killed us too! We had to replace a Laurel bush that died out front and with a sale and a coupon it was still $50.00! UGH! I keep looking through Craigslist to try to find those “You dig, You take!” ads, but they are few and far between. Oh well, it will all come together…you know, right before we move again. ;o)
Can’t wait to see your progress for the wedding!
Grocery stores have really good plant sales around this time. I also love annuals for easy color. You just water them (occasionally in my case) and you can get “creeping” ones that spread out and cover a large spot. Grasses are also under $5 and spring up nice and big! One of the garden places around me is only open seasonally so they have big start of summer and end of fall sales when they close for the summer and winter. It looks awesome right now though! I love how nice it looks with the green grass!
You guys are so talented. Things are looking great!
I also can’t believe how pricey plants are! It is crazy! Maybe I should start a nursery:) As a random though slightly related savings question… what are some of your family’s favorite ways to save money other than goodwill shopping? Lots of pb&j sammies? I am looking for some inspiration 🙂
Hold up! Did you guys paint your front door?? Did I miss a post on that?? Inquiring minds need to know!
Yup – we sure did. Here’s the link to what we did!
xo – kb
Have you tried checking your local Craigslist for shrubs? Sometimes you can score great deals that way!
I prefer the stick. J/K.
We have a laundry list of things to do to our backyard but it has been 110 degrees here in Oklahoma for like the past month. In other words, we’ve been working on the inside. 🙂
Looks great, Katie!
With all that grass and little rain, do you guys have a sprinkler system??
I’m in a small town outside of Dallas. Postage stamp also, can’t wait to move further out when the kids graduate. I also love your yard Katie. That dropoff would have scared me too! Such cute pictures of all your *men*.
We were looking at that fence to section off our little sliver of backyard where the dog does his business so the kids dont go running into a pile of, well you know. Glad to hear it was easy to install. It is probably a good thing that you installed it a few feet out from the ledge, that way just in case Will got curious and pushed on it (not knowing how stable it actually is), if it fell over, it would have some room to do so w/o hopefully anyone going over the edge!
Looks good Katie! And I’m glad you found a solution to keep your cutie patootie Will safe! 🙂
We moved from a postage stamp-sized yard in Raleigh, NC to a 1/3 acre lot in OK…it feels like we have acres in comparison. Haha.
Katie,
Love you BLOG….and love that you actually responded to a question I had a couple of months ago! I’m an avid gardeners/landscaper, which I could do it professionally …and have considered a blog as a way to start.
I would highly recommend you find a local source for your landscape plants. Find a local grower….and you will save BIG time. I live in NC…and there is a great source for landscape type of plants (think bushes, shrubs and trees) and another great source for flowering plants …the second one is about an hour away, but well worth my drive!
I would LOVE to do a quick landscape plan for you….via photographs. Keeping in mind that you are on a budget. Let me know if you would be interested!
My aunt told me that she was able to barter the Walmart people down. She said she wanted three of their hydrangeas and played the card of “you have so many, most are going to die” and the Walmart person went to their manager, who cut the costs. It may work for you too! And yes, plants are really expensive! It’s why we haven’t redone our entire front yard. But hey, if you want to drive to MO, we’d be happy to give you a giant holly, three giant no name bushes, and some hedges. 🙂 They’re all destined to be dug out, but unfortunately for us (well, hubby), they are freakin’ giants and will not disappear! Oh, and we have a ton of prickly pear cactus that I’d happily get rid of and that would work in your concrete dirt (we have it too due to the extreme lack of rain!).
Your place is looking great! I love that you are able to just walk around your yard and find plants instead of having to start from scratch with everything!
Bartering with Walmart managers = brilliant in my book!
xo – kb
We do but we are trying to not water…last month we did and ended up with a $250 water bill. This month? Um can’t afford that.
xo – kb
An inexpensive way to keep weeds under control is to use several sheets newspaper (instead of landscape fabric) and top it with mulch in your flower beds. The newspaper is organic and will breakdown in the soil.
Love your blog!
Do you know how long it will last until it breaks down? I just hate to have to do it every year…that’s a lot of work that adds up when you have a lot of beds.
xo – kb
I wonder if you could do the opposite to what the YHL folks do: put an ad on kijiji or craig’s list and offer to remove any plants people want to get rid of!
More importantly: is Will wearing a belt? My son doesn’t have any belts yet, but oh my gosh that is a-dora-ble!
I love baby belts. They are seriously one of my favoritest boy accessories. And I will definitely have to keep my eyes peeled on Craigslist…not that I want to dig, but maybe I could coerce my boyfriend.
xo – kb
Like you we’ve got a big spread…six acres here. Needless to say it won’t ALL get landscaped…ever. One of the things I’ve done to cut planting costs is to purchase perennials that can be dug up and divided every few years. Daylillies and hostas are two of my faves. You might also check around to see if you’ve got a local nursery that will offer wholesale prices if you buy in bulk. One of my favorite nurseries offers wholesale rates if you buy 20 or more plants…and they don’t all have to be the same. Several friends and I have got together and shrub-shopped…it was a fun day out for us girls and saved us about 60% off retail. I think you guys found a great and economical way to fill in that bed in your front yard. Best of luck as you prepare for the happy day!
I second the grower’s outlet in Loganville. We went there last year and got a car full of plants for under $60. This included 2 blueberry bushes that bore fruit last year and this year. A similar plant purchase anywhere else would have been at least double that. They have a great selection of both edible and decorative plants (including trees). That place is awesome.
You probably know this, but pooring boiling water on weeds will kill them. Of course this may not kill the whole root system especially if they propagate underground, not through seeds. But at least this quick/temporary fix is totally harmless!
I’m sorry if these comments have already been made multiple times but I don’t have time to scan so forgive me.
Do you know that if you save your receipts plants you buy at Lowes and Home Depot are replaceable for a year??? Yeppers, if they die, they replace them!
Another place to get plants is in the spring and fall when people are dividing. They list them on freecycle.org. We are military and lease a 2 1/2 acre home in MI and I’ve spent the past two years loving it after it sat vacant for 4 years and have really gotten A LOT of bang for my buck i.e. FREE by freecycling and moving things around as you have!
I tell everyone I know about your house and hope and pray that someday such a dream deal will avail itself to us but I’m not holding my breath!
Oh! One more thing…the plastic Adirondack chairs are on sale now everywhere and they can be painted when they need to be, stack for storage in the winter and would be great to scatter in conversation areas for the upcoming wedding!
Hey now when did you paint the front door that awesomely welcoming red? I hope you are going to share about that, I have been in search of the end-all be-all of red door paint and from afar it seems this may be it! Great work BTW, toddler proofing for boys is one of the most challenging things I’ve ever encountered, you seem to be successful at it!
Hi Laura,
I did! Look in the side bar under My To-Do list and you will see the little link 🙂
xo – kb
I didn’t know that! What a great idea! Does it work on poison ivy too? That’s my worst weed enemy.
xo – kb
White vinegar will kill weeds. Just put some in a spray bottle, spray it on, and it will kill the weeds-roots and all! Totally harmless for kids and pets.
We have a huge yard, so it takes a good couple hours to spray everything down, but we only need to do it every 8 weeks or so (and we suspect over time we won’t even have to spray that often-we’ve only been in the house about 7 months though, so time will tell.)
Someone let me in on a little perennial plant secret this year: Craigslist. Generally it’s people who have too many plants after dividing all of theirs…cheap, healthy, and already a good size.
Off to a good start!
Have you thought about getting some cheap faberic and hanging it in the patio area? Kind of like this…
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_5De9GE3l1Ds/S9iGz8D1PTI/AAAAAAAAMPU/nUjuClwNM6Y/s1600/pergola+w+curtains.jpg
I love the ferns and the fence! Too bad I am in NY because I am breaking up a TON of hostas and ferns… they are out of control! We break them out, transplant around the yard and put the rest in buckets by the curb.
How many times did you check that Avril Lavigne hadn’t died before you posted this? 😉
I know what you mean about the ground being hard. I grew up in the mountains and digging a hole for a new plant was nothing. Now I live in central NC, and it’s impossible! When we first moved to our house we couldn’t figure out why the previous owners didn’t plant anything, but we quickly figured that out. Your yard looks great…definitely an improvement!
Twice.
xo – kb
Have you tried ordering plants off of eBay? We ordered twelve boxwood bushes two years ago for a total of $20. Now – the “bushes” were little sticks about ten inches tall, but in two years they have grown fabulously, and will only need a year or two more to look mature. Obviously not a quick solution for the wedding, but it works well for long term landscaping plans. Just make sure to choose a reputable well reviewed seller and you will be fine. 🙂
We always stalk Home Depot in October and November to pick up trees and shrubberies that are marked down ridiculously (like $1 for nice barberries, $5 for cherry trees, etc) They sometimes look pretty rough (more tools for bargaining!) but usually perk up in the spring with some pruning. It is a good way to fill up our three acres on the cheap. I also have a habit of planting perennial seeds in my vegetable garden, treating it like a nursery. So I let them grow this summer, then next spring when they come back up, they are more mature and ready to be transplanted elsewhere. I just can’t get the seeds to grow directly in the flower beds, and this way I have a TON of them for just the price of the seed packet and some time watering (from rain barrels even…) I have also begged perennials off friends and family by splitting from their mature plants. Oh, and I use bleach to kill my weeds in my garden bricks. Just make sure you don’t wear your favorite pair of jeans when you are doing it, or you will have bleached cuffs. Not that I have done that or anything (as I roll up the white cuffs of my favorite jeans…) If you want to use vinegar, you have to get special landscaping kind, because the stuff from the grocery store is typically diluted (like 5%) and won’t kill the plants. You also will want to use any of these remedies (boiling water included) on as small a plant as possible…once they are past their baby stage, you might as well just pull them (says the girl who spent an hour pulling weeds out of garden bricks last night, and was almost carried away by mosquitoes). On the newspaper as mulch front, it works for a couple years. You can also use cardboard topped with mulch too. It isn’t perfect, but gets you a good start. At least weeds pull out of mulch a little bit better than straight dirt?
Loving all the yard updates Katie! I live on the opposite side of the world, so we’re in winter here, although our winters are much milder than yours (I’m wearing jeans and a t-shirt and its a beautiful sunny day outside!)
I’m looking forward to seeing all the updates to the house and garden in the next 8 weeks… and by the way, I think it already looks great as it is (if it didn’t, I’m sure yr sis wouldn’t have asked to have the wedding there).
We did our own spot of gardening last weekend (my stepmum, me and my 3 year old) – planted an 11m long vege patch! Can’t wait to eat the fruits of our labour 🙂
I was just about to mention this! They’ll open again on August 25th – I can’t wait!
I guess I’ll have to mark the calendar!
Thanks!
xo – kb
no clue, unfortunately. Those are nasty indeed.
Just one thing, it may also kill/boil your grass so I mentioned it mainly for weeds on mulch. And a cordless electric kettle is the safest way to carry the water of course.
Good luck!
Do you know anyone who has a lovely landscape? We’re in Ohio, and honestly when I get the chance to share my plants I jump at it. Anyone who loves plants usually loves to share them, and if you notice they have the kind of plants that keep on multiplying –I’d just ask for starts. Hostas that usually cost $7-$10 can just be dug out of the edge of the plant and when they come up next year you wouldn’t even notice the missing plant. The same with ground cover, daylilies, blackeyed susans..there is so many. I’d start asking.
Love how everything is coming along. That front circle looks great and I think it’s just begging for a lamp post. I’m a sucker for a great lamp post.
Hey Katie! I’m guessing you got your fence at lowes and I just noticed today that it went on sale for $20! If you bring your receipt back they should give you the difference 🙂
totally weird coincidence moment alert!
i happened to stumble on this older post from today’s post about your summer photos. you’ll never guess what song was playing on my grooveshark.com radio station when i got to this very line : “I couldn’t get over it. $30 per plant?! In the words of Avril Lavigne “WHAT THE…”
what a coincidence! i’m not the biggest Avril Lavigne fan, but for some reason i just dig this song. 🙂
Will is such a cutie, as always!
We planted a tree in our yard when each of our 3 girls was born. My mom asked everyone at my baby shower to contribute a little bit. We now have a beautiful princess dogwood, magnolia, and Chinese dogwood that flower each spring! Might be a good way to get that pretty yard done, since I am sure you have baby stuff galore after Will.
Wow – the trees sound beautiful. We planted one for Will – even transplanted it when we moved – but this year it died 🙁
xo – kb
where did you purchase the push in the ground fence
Lowes. It was in the decorative fencing section 🙂
xo – kb
How has the fence held up? The reviews on Lowes aren’t that great…
Ours has held up great. We have zero problems with no rust and no peeling paint here.
xo – kb