Butterfly Properties Garden Tour!

Marilyn and I have been garden coaches in Missoula since about 2009 (Butterfly Properties).  Garden coaching is just what it sounds like: helping people identify garden goals and then helping them achieve those goals in a step-wise strategy.

Our favorite part about garden coaching is seeing how excited people get by transforming their yards from something generic to something beautiful that suits their personal vision and needs. It is inspirational to see! And now we want to share the inspiration with you, via the Inaugural Butterfly Properties Native Plant Garden Tour!

Four of our clients agreed to open their yards for the tour. We think that if you live in western Montana and are interested in native plant gardening for beauty, personal enjoyment, wildlife habitat and resource reduction, you will enjoy seeing these projects. You’ll probably get some ideas and meet some new friends. 

JOIN US!  Click here to RSVP on the Facebook event, or contact us by email by clicking here.

Inaugural Butterfly Properties Client Native Plant Garden Tour!

Date:  Sunday, June 28, 12-4 pm

Location: Begin and end at Butterfly Properties World Headquarters, 1750 South 8th Street
West, between Catlin and Garfield on 8th Street

Tour Description:

Join us as we tour four of our clients’ gardens: gardens envisioned and created by people just like you. Each garden is different: different stages of maturity, different goals, and different site considerations. But what do they have in common? Using native plants to create personal, beautiful spaces for people and wildlife to share.

We’ll meet at our house to hand out maps, meet each other and set up carpooling options. We’ll visit each garden as a group, and hear from the gardeners.  We hope this tour will become a regular event. It is an opportunity to get ideas, inspiration, and motivation and to meet like-minded gardeners.

We will conclude with a social and a recap form at our garden. We will probably have some native plants to give away, too.

Tentative Schedule:

12:00 Meet at 1750 S. 8th St. W. (Butterfly Properties World Headquarters) for map and carpooling

12:45- 1:15 “Downtown Secret Sanctuary”

1:30- 2:00 “Fun Family Space Garden”

2:15- 2:45 “Natural Playground and Family Compound”

3:00-3:30 “Bury the Evidence”

3:30- Social at Butterfly Properties World Headquarters!

Garden Descriptions

12:45- 1:15 Downtown Secret Sanctuary
Our Front Street yard is our sanctuary in the making, a secret garden in the downtown area. For years it was a blank canvas for which we had no vision. Its evolution has been equal parts planned (thanks to Butterfly Properties) and organic creativity. The yard has some unique features that we have tried to use to the best advantage of the garden and which help make it a fun place to explore. There’s a steep hill with a shady grove at the bottom, a sunny ledge near the house, and some structural elements we’ve tried to connect to the garden. We’ve incorporated pathways, dog friendly spots, vegetables, and low-water areas.We are excited to be a part of the Butterfly Properties garden tour, to share our progress and see the cool ways people are designing their yards.

1:30- 2:00 Fun Family Spaces

A year ago we were stuck on what to do with our large, flat, square backyard that contained a small deck, eight huge vegetable planters and far too much weedy, dry lawn. We had almost no gardening experience, and the little we had was in a tiny yard in England.  We wanted to use the space for outdoor eating, for kids to plan and explore, to relax with a book or chat with friends on warm evenings. We also wanted to reduce the time and water inputs required to maintain the vast lawn. Since we met with Marilyn and David last summer, we've planned out spaces for eating, playing, lying in the hammock and socializing. We've removed half the lawn; laid what feels like acres of weed matting and mulch; planted some initial shrubs; built a small sandbox and added a climbing structure; and, most recently, dug a large hole and turned the dirt into a hill. We're very much “in-progress,” but the space has already been transformed – there’s increasing variety and plenty more to come. One real benefit of making drastic changes like removing 1200 sq ft of grass and moving 10 yards of dirt is that it definitely makes the prospect of further changes seem quite manageable.

2:15-2:45 Natural Playground and Family Compound

Our "garden" is actually our entire lot, and now expanding into Lisa's mom's backyard next door. We have a food and cut flower garden and some native plant beds out front but most of our energy and time is spent in our back yard right now. We began working on our landscape plan in 2008! We were initially looking to add some interesting landscape design and start experimenting with natives. At first, we worried if we were keeping enough lawn for our needs, but now we are always thinking about which sections of sod to remove next. The biggest challenge for us is always removing sod--that first sod cutter experience was a marriage test! But with each year we are inspired to keep the project going. Our yard is used for many things including privacy in an urban setting, family gathering space, growing some food, and creating wildlife habitat. Lisa is exploring how the yard can become a testing ground for preschool playground ideas. We want to have a back yard that draws our kids outside and can keep them busy in imaginary play for hours where they can run back and forth between our house and Grandma's.

3:00- 3:30 Bury the Evidence

We wanted a beautiful but low maintenance front yard that let us focus energy on vegetable gardening instead of lawn care. It makes me happy to work in the garden, and it makes me even happier when the garden returns the favor with food. I love vegetable gardening and this is my first stab at working with natives. We started our garden project last June with a visit from David and Marilyn. Their enthusiasm threw us into several weeks of sod cutting, rolling, and Craigslisting. That was followed by mounding loads and load of soil (including our entire compost pile, accidentally stealing rocks from our neighbor, and a deep well I was conveniently digging for our egress window). The project culminated with my mom flying in from Detroit to help me plant all our fresh starts, only to break both of her legs the night we completed the work. We decided that would be a good point to wrap things up for the season.  Our favorite thing about the garden is the mounds David suggested. Not only do they make the neighbors think that we're a little off, but they look really cool with snow on them in the winter when you can't see all the plant babies. Countless neighbors and bike commuters have gone by and made a crack about what we're hiding under the mounds. A mother-in-law? The last person who asked? Cats? You name it.  Removing the sod was ridiculously hard work, but David's method worked like a charm. Not one blade of grass has sprung up. This season we are finding out who survived the winter, learning to identify the native plants, and probably filling in with some new additions.

Finale: Social at the Butterfly Properties World Headquarters

Our garden goals are to use only Missoula area native plants to create places for wildlife and for us. We also think it is important to only water what we eat. Our yard is arranged into a series of rooms- laundry, cooking, dining, potting, and more.

How to remove a lawn; part 2

Spring is coming and I know a lot of people are thinking about expanding or planting a native plant garden. Inevitably the first question is about site preparation and, specifically what to do with the lawn that is between them and their wildlife and native plant garden destiny.

How to remove a lawn is by far the most often searched phrase that leads people to my blog, and that post (titled the same) is far and away my most viewed page.

I thought I’d update the post with some more information and details based on questions I receive on this blog, in my speaking engagements and from mine and my wife’s native plant, wildlife and sustainable garden coaching business, Butterfly Properties (yes, my last name is German for "butterfly").

Like painting a house or so many other things, success is only guaranteed by the mundane tasks of preparation.  Site preparation is the inglorious hard work that is the most important part, but often the part that gets short cut.  And what is true for painting a house is true for gardening and native plant landscaping.  Frustration, failure, dissatisfaction or disillusionment can often be traced back to skipping steps and taking short cuts in site preparation.  In gardening terms, specifically in a native plant garden  that comes down to getting rid of the existing lawn and keeping it out.

In defense of the sod cutter. 

Sod cutters are hard to use, they are loud, they run on gas, and they are the best tool for the job.

Although meticulously removing sod is always my suggestion, I am always met with questions where people would like an alternative.  An alternative that many perceive is easier, more earth friendly, cheaper, quicker, etc...  around here (Missoula) for the last few years, "lasagna" gardens or sheet mulching has become very popular.  Initially popular, that is, it becomes very unpopular when people have to remove it, or deal with weeds in the lasagna.  Typically what leads to failure is not giving the lasagna garden time enough to work, not dealing with the existing weeds, our climate, or a combination of the three.
The idea of a lasagna garden is a nice one, and one that should be left for the idea book. A lasagna garden can work, I know, but I don't recommend it.

In my blog (and in our garden coaching business) I advocate for physically removing the lawn and I still do.  This is the thing most people are resistant to do, but I think it is still the best and most effective way.  It is also the quickest, and depending on you method, it could be the least resource intensive.  You can dig it all up with a hand sod lifter or even a square bladed shovel and then compost it on site- This has to be one of  the most, if not the most, resource un-intensive methods for lawn removal.

Composting the sod does take time and a lot of space (depending on the quantity of sod you are removing).  Also if you are going to go this route, dry the sod out (under a tarp or something and them screen the soil off  first. 

The inevitable questions:

What about solarizing? Using cardboard?  Using a rototiller? Turning the sod upside down?

There is always someone that will say it worked for them, but there are probably three other people out there that have a different experience.  We have removed a lot of lawn, and the sod cutter (in one form or another) is always our method. My wife and I have landscaped public areas, little parks (like the Native Plant Garden at 8th and Grant), and other places that get very little maintenance, and the essential steps to ensuring that the areas stay weed free are below.

The typical steps (from How to Remove a Lawn):

1. remove the sod
2. remove any weeds the sod cutter missed
3. wait a little while to see what germinates or grows back than remove that, too.  
4. cover soil with newspaper or cardboard
5. apply mulch
6. plant

Although I provide more detail on other aspects of lawn removal here, these are some questions 

Is it hard to use a sod cutter?  Yes.  It takes work, depending on your soil (or lack of soil, like in many Missoula yards) it can be a beast of a job.  I am not saying don’t do it, just be prepared. One of the biggest mistakes people make is removing too much soil, and this leads to a lot of extra work.  

It is critical to set the sod cutter at the proper depth- you don’t want to remove perfectly good soil, just get below the rooting depth of the grass. 

Although you can plant right away, it's better to wait and see what comes up. But don’t wait too long, because you will be inviting anything and everything from germinating.

Is lawn edging necessary?

Yes, unless you really enjoyed removing the sod and want to keep doing it for years to come. 

Edging is very effective, if installed correctly.  Buy the biggest (deepest) kind possible.  Aesthetically, metal edgings looks the best, steel or aluminum.  Metal edging has the smallest profile and creates a nice clean look. Although I like steel the best, it is the most expensive and the hardest to work with.  For most homeowners, I suggest plastic edging.  The main criticism with plastic edging is from when it is improperly installed and it sits up too high.  This is a problem for a several reasons.  First, aesthetically, it is ugly.  Second, if it is too high, it can work its way out of the ground through the freeze/ thaw cycle.  Third it is ugly.  Fourth, if it is set too high, it may allow rhizomes and runners to get underneath and invade the lawn-less area.    Did I mention that if you set it too, high it is ugly?  Just set the edging so it is just proud of the surface of the soil.  If installed correctly, you shouldn't really notice it.

One great source for lawn edging in Missoula is at Home ReSource.  It always seems like they have some there and it is a great thing to re-use.

The final suggestion is about the size of the project.  This is another thing that can lead to disillusionment.  Only remove what you can plant in the near future (could be a week or season, depending on your time and goals)- don’t embark on too big of a project.  I'd rather someone gets satisfied completing a small project and has inspiration to continue, instead of attempting something too large and being overwhelmed by trying to do too much. Unfortunately, the only way to know what is too big or too small is to try.
Having said all that, another mistake is not building beds big enough!  Decide how big a bed you think you need, draw it out, wait a little while, than double it.  No one ever says "I wish I had more lawn” when they are removing some. 

The good news is, like with more gardening projects, you can add more later (or remove more lawn that is).

A garden is dynamic

Its been a while since my last post, in part because I've taken some time to do some work in the garden.

A garden is never done.

From time to time it is nice to redo parts of the garden. Perhaps it is because I am never satisfied, or maybe it is just that I like gardening, but more likely it is because the garden is always in a state of change. Unlike interior decorating or architecture, plants grow and conversely they die, or becomes senescent, which sounds better sometimes.

The garden changes, and how you look at the garden changes too. Plans change, the way you use your garden changes, and your tastes and aesthetics change over time. As a result, there is always change, and a garden is dynamic. Embrace this- it s part of the fun. Plan for it, if you are good.

Here is a link to an older post of mine that will give you an idea of the continued change in our garden (Time Series and Change)

This year I put together a list of garden projects, these are always fun to make and a great reason for keeping a garden journal (or a blog).
So this is a little recap of some of those projects, but also a reminder that a garden is not static, or stuck in some level of size, growth, etc... The more plasticity you can incorporate into your garden, the more you will probably enjoy the process of gardening.

Changes:

I finally got rid of the last vestiges of lawn (see photo at the beginning of the post and below). In both cases our lawn had been reduced to a couple of patches of open space, but mainly they were used as paths and as places to gather. Frankly, neither option was a really good use for lawn. These little lawn remnant patches would typically get worn down and trampled. Also, since we had so little lawn, the lawn began to look out of place. So rather than fight it, I dug it all up, and replaced it with urbanite, hills and ultimately more native plants (here is a past post on working with urbanite). The native flowers will come from where I placed new raised beds (see blow).

I also added more raised beds to the garden for vegetables like this new garlic bed in front of the greenhouse,

Or the new onion bed in the foreground next to the grape arbor. All these beds are covered with my cat guard/ trellis system, in case you were wondering what the grids were all about. They also triple there utility as planting grids for garlic and onions since I plant all those with about 6" spacing.
The aspen grove is now decadent- but we did not loose aspen, we gained some sangs. And as aspen are wont to do, we did not actually loose any aspen, they are just in different places, and we now have more aspen, or above ground aspen, anyway.
We got a good decade out of the aspen grove, and frankly I am excited to rework it- while using the snag as a prominent feature.

Throughout these projects was the theme of adding more and more seating.

Cheap gardening.

Like that law of physics, matter is never really lost or gained nor was it lost in these projects- all the elements were just rearranged. I moved plants from one area to the next, moved compost from our compost bins into the new raised garden boxes, moved a hill from one place to another, and ultimately spent nothing, other than a trip to Home ReSource, which, by the way, is having its Grand Opening on Sat. Nov. 6th, to scavenge some urbanite from their take pile.

There are always going to be some places in the garden that just don't work, and that is also part of the fun and challenge. This summer I changed a couple of spots that I thought I fixed last year, or the year before. Some years I do nothing in the garden but enjoy it- enjoy it but secretly plan some changes. Sometimes I think my wife dreads when I say, things like "I'd like to move this or that or put a hill there or take that hill away". Again, this is all part of the fun, that is, thinking about how to change things and solve problems, not annoying my wife.

In a couple of years, the changes I made this summer, I might undo, and I look forward to it.

Nesting and bloom update

Wow. Things have changed in the garden. I was out of town for week and when I got back I was amazed how quickly things change this time of the year. Suddenly I feel like there is so much to do in the garden, and suddenly I am so far behind. Here is a brief update of the goings on...

It appears that everything has leaves, buds or flowers on it now; below I list what is in bloom.

Nesting Update

• the chickadees are bringing nesting material into their box (click here for my favorite nesting material combo- squirrel and moss).
• The flickers evidently completed the excavation of their box all while we were gone.
• The mystery this year was what was happening in the nuthatch box? The nuthatches "claimed" this box early on, but then some chickadees began excavating it, and pretty regularly. And there was no sign of the pair of nuthatches. Were these the same chickadees that were also going to nest in the normal chickadee box? And who's ever heard of 2 pairs of chickadees nesting the same yard? Craziness- they need a couple of acres because of competition for food. But now, all has been revealed- the nuthatches have returned and they are now nearly completely done excavating their box.

Once they finish excavating they will probably continue their tiny onslaught of my bent willow furniture- shredding off the bark into fine nesting material for their little, freshly excavated cavity. Then they will carefully line to opening of the box with sap- lest I try to get back said components of my bent willow furniture. Order has been restored.
Bloom Update:

Flowering now- arrowleaf balsamroot (Balsamorhiza sagittata ), golden current (Ribes aureum), blue bells (Mertensia oblongifolia ), larkspur (Delphinium bicolor ), Jacobs ladder (Polemonium pulcherrimum), biscuitroot (Lomatium triternatum and L. dissectum), violets (Viola canadensis ) pasque flower (Pulsatilla patens), cutleaf daisy (Erigeron compositus, pictured above), blue virginsbower (Clematis occidentalis, see photo at beginning of the post of the virginsbower on my clothesline), prairie smoke (Geum triflorum), blue eyed mary (Collinsia parviflora, see below- this is one of my favorites, and it makes a nice groundcover), sivery lupine (Lupinus argenteus ), kittentails (Synthyris missurica ), Oregon grape (Mahonia repens ), and many more species flowering every day that it is hard to keep up.

So much to do. Last weekend I removed a little remnant lawn patch that I have had my eye on to turn from lawn to what I call a mowable prairie. In the lawn's place I planted natives that can be mown and maintained- like a lawn was originally intended- a meadow that could be mown to a height that would allow for paths and play areas. Instead of a lawn or a water hungry meadow, I planted this with drought tolerant, trample resistant natives like yarrow (Achillea millefolium ), hairy golden aster (Heterotheca villosa), mixed aster and erigeron species. After planting starts and transplants in the mowable prairie area, I covered the whole thing with mulch, but not just any mulch, gentle reader, a special mulch... this mulch is made from seed heads and flower parts I cut off last fall and kept in a bag out side all winter (cold stratification). Then I carefully (read: not at all) applied it to the surface of the fresh bed. I've found that with hairy golden aster, and my bag of assorted asters (by assorted I mean I can't really tell the difference between most asters and erigerons in my garden), they do great germinating when laid down in a mulch. I have been waiting for rain to do this, and by golly the rain has finally come (hopefully it will continue for a little while).

I did have a chance to also plant my potatoes, beets, peas, and other things I am probably forgetting and I finally built a new raised bed- for onions (see below, with cat guard installed), I moved the hill that was in its place and potted up all the asters and such that were on the hill. Maybe this weekend, I'll plant those potted up plants into the front yard or fill in other places in the yard.

Now I am well on my way to completing my 2010 garden project list (click here for this list). According to the list, the only thing left is making a new composter, but in reality, the list has really grown...

Lots going on suddenly, more updates with pictures to follow, oh and, a new arrival to the garden yesterday, a golden crowned kinglet.

How to remove a lawn

Why remove some lawn? Here are a few thoughts and statistics…
Lawns are now the number one irrigated crop in the U.S., covering over 40 million acres, three times the land area covered by corn and more than wheat. That is a pretty startling fact. We have gone from a nation of growing food crops to ornamental grass. The statistics on water use, maintenance costs and materials, fertilizer, and other resources for lawn care in this country is even more astounding.
For example, in the U.S.:

• 800 million gallons of gas is burned in lawnmowers every year
• 67 million pounds of synthetic pesticides are used on lawns
• 238 gallons of water/ person/ day is used during the growing season
• Outdoor watering accounts for more than half of municipal water use in most areas

From a wildlife perspective, the lawn is a barren wasteland- a monoculture that supports very little insect and animal life. The only animals and insects that do use the lawn are referred to as pests, and most are invasive, or non-native, and people in the U.S. spend millions annually to control them. Certainly, deer, robins and some other wildlife species will feed in or on a lawn, but the reason is often that there is little else left for them.

Removing all or part of your lawn and converting it anything else is one of the best things you can do for sustainable landscaping, increasing biodiversity, and fostering wildlife in your garden. The smaller your lawn, the less stuff you will need to maintain it- we get by with a small reel mower, that takes up little space, is quiet, does not need fuel, is inexpensive (compared to a gas-powered lawn mower) and is fun to use.

A lawn has its place in a yard- it is useful for a wide variety of activities, but it probably does not need to cover the amount of square footage as it currently does. We have some small lawn patches in our yard (see photo below), and they center on dining and entertaining areas, and though they are remarkably small, they can accommodate a lot of people. Also, the lawn patches are in areas of the yard that receive shade, so even though we do not water them grass grows pretty well. We have removed all the lawn from areas that receive full sun, or were otherwise difficult to grow turf grass. Examine your own yard and think of how little you could live with, and consider lawn as a luxury, indeed it is. a lawn once (and still is) a status symbol,for the aristocrats who could afford to have servants care and maintain it. Turf grass grew easily in the English climate of moderate temperatures and frequent rains. If you live in a climate that can't support a lawn without irrigation, consider the environmental effects of irrigating. Is that the best use for water?

Steps for successfully removing a lawn
Removing a lawn and keeping it away is not that simple, but not that difficult either. It takes care, prep work and patience. It can be done without herbicides or with a very limited amount of herbicides, or with a lot of herbicide if you are so inclined (though I am not). Below are several steps to ensure sucess.

Step one, cut a hole in the lawn (kidding).
Step one- Rent a sod cutter. If you have an area >100 square feet, I strongly recommend a gas powered sod cutter, if the area is smaller, you can get by with a kick style, manual sod cutter. The reason for using a sod cutter rather than a shovel is that a sod cutter removes the sod just below the rooting depth of the grass and removes very little- just a thin veneer of- soil. This saves (literally) tons of soil. Also, by using a sod cutter the sod is reusable (see below). Whereas if you were to just dig up the sod one shovel-full at a time, it is in a less desirable state for reuse. If you are really determined to use a shovel, use a square-bladed shovel and aim to just skim the sod layer off, as opposed to digging straight down.

Mark the area of sod you want to remove. Once it is marked, think about it for a few days, and probably increase the size of the new garden bed. I have never heard anyone say "I wish my garden beds were smaller", or "I sure miss mowing that part of the lawn over there." So remove more lawn than you think you will need, you will be happy you did.

Cut and roll up the lawn, and get it away. This is a very satisfying step- instant gratification.

A couple of notes here- do not try to “solarize”, cover, smother, or spray herbicide to kill the lawn. These methods take too long to be effective (if they are ever is effective at all). It just takes a small bit of grass root left behind for the lawn to come back. I am sure there are some situations where it may work, but I do not recommend it. In our climate, the lawn does not really ever die from covering it, maybe after a few years, but who really wants to spend that long. I suspect even after a few years, once it gets some rain, it will re-grow. Still if you do manage to kill it (either with herbicide or from covering it), then you still have to deal with the sod that is there- it is not like the lawn will just decompose to soil.

Once you have cut and removed the sod the best thing to do is to get rid of the lawn. I have tried composting it, turning it over, etc… It takes a really long time to break down and consumes a lot of space in the process. Even if you keep it in a covered pile, there is always the possibility it will start to re-grow.

People want sod and my advice is to give it to them.

The best thing to do is…put a "free" ad in the newspaper (so 1990’s) or Craigslist (so 2008) or MySpace (so 2009 if you under 30). People love sod, and it will be gone before you know it.

Install lawn edging to keep adjacent lawn from getting into beds (if applicable). Use the largest edging you can find (at least 5-6”).

Spot spray herbicide to any roots or things that the sod cutter missed (or dig them out). For example, sometimes the sod cutter will just knock the top off of a huge dandelion. At this point, it might be best to water the site, wait a week, and see if anything germinates, and then remove it or kill it (dig it up, apply herbicide, use a torch, or something), but often is nice to just proceed to the next step, and a lot more gratifying than having a large patch of dirt to watch for a week, while you are waiting for unwanted plants to show themselves. Add any soil amendments, if necessary – the nice thing about native plants here is you do not need this- though you may want to form hills, or raise the elevation of the newly stripped soil
Then, plant your plants- the fun part. Depending on your garden plan, I recommend adding a layer of some sort of weed mat depending on your garden plan. We like to use newspaper, or cardboard. When you lay down newspaper use several overlapping sheets and wet it with a hose to help conform to the contours of the landscape. The thing with newspaper that I like is that it will be around for a few years while things get established, but eventually it will decompose. Landscape fabric is more or less forever but it could be really useful in an area when you do not want any plants to grow (we have some under our clothesline). Finally, mulch heavily! Don’t skimp on mulch- go for an initial 4-6” application of some sort of mulch. Mulch is a really important step; mulch limits weed growth, retains soil moisture and eventually will break down (this can be good, depending on what your plan is). Some people have concerns about mulch, in particular cedar bark, acidifying he soil. I have not found this to be the case, and maybe that is due to our dry climate, but it does decompose in a few years in our yard. In our front yard prairie, we initially added a lot of mulch (see photo above), but this broke down and now you’d be hard pressed to find any (a good thing, see photo below). Mulch is critical for the first year or so to get plants established (even xeric species), and keep out weeds. Even though we chose native, drought tolerant plants, you have to plan on one season or a year (depending on when you plant stuff) in order to get plants established (that means watering and weeding), beyond that, we have not found a need to water. Mulch really limits the amount of time you will spend weeding.

Although there are many options for mulch, I recommend shredded cedar bark. This is a lumber by-product, and because it is shredded, it stays where you put it. Cedar (western red, in this case) takes longer to decompose than many hardwood mulches. In many cities, you can get free mulch from tree removal services or city arborists that chip and shred trees. In general, this sort of mulch is pretty low quality, filled with a lot of leaves, and small particles. It breaks down quickly (may blow away in a wind storm) and compresses really quickly, but for the right application, it is usually free (a great price) and it is a great use for local materials. We have rented a chipper/ shredder to grind up some shrubs and trees and used that mulch as a base layer, on to which we added shredded, cedar bark mulch. This is a good use for free, low-quality mulch.

Before and after

Our yard and gardens constantly change. That is one of the nice things about gardening and landscaping, plants grow, landscapes change and you can change them.

When we started landscaping our yard, it was mainly a lawn. All the trees, shrubs, flowers, and grasses are ones we planted over the last 9 years.

We started with our front yard- the most public space and have worked or reworked areas as time and out ideas have allowed. Here are a few pictures showing some of the changes. Site preparation is essential, including removing sod, installing edging, something to control weeds (like newspaper or landscape fabric- depending on the site), mulch and careful plant selection. Typically we will water the bed or area we landscape for the first season to allow plants to get established, and beyond that they are on their own. It is critical to water to get the plants established but after the first winter we have found it is really not necessary.