Project Outdoors: Getting Started!

My front yard tree is blooming!

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of The Home Depot.

Like I mentioned in my last post, I’m not very comfortable… in my own yard. I am trying to get outside of my comfort zone and it’s really easy to do when I just grab a shovel. Landscaping and plants are so unpredictable and their fragility frightens me a bit. I mean, I know a lot of people just get it- you water the plants, use a little fertilizer and out sprouts beauty… it’s so easy right? …..

So I called my mom.

April has been about inner and outer beauty and I really feel like this post fits as well. It’s crazy. I have been an interior decorator in the past, having homes that are nice looking and put together well. However, when it comes to outside I feel at a loss of what to do.

It’s been a really rainy month so after delays from bad weather, late frosts and traveling, I felt like I couldn’t put this off for any longer.

We first decided to clean off the back porch and have that easier before/after done with! See the before picture here.

(Ignore the pant-less child, lol!) Isn’t this fun? We divided it in half and gave the kids their side and gave the adults a side! I love the indoor/outdoor rug and the Home Depot really helped inspire this with their Outdoor Living section on their website!

Now to the more challenging aspects, our work in progress:

My dad came as well and the three of us just stood in the front yard for some time thinking. I think this planning phase is critical to any successful outdoor (or indoor!) make over. We decided to trim up the existing bushes to see if we could make a front garden that included them.

Typically I just jump into every project, but my parents really encouraged me to sit back and really plan it through. I mean, I was ready to pick out flowers and  I really needed pick out landscaping borders instead.

My mom loves to draw out what she is going to do so she took my ideas and project goal and sketched out on a notepad what to do.  I got on the Home Depot’s  website after Ben and I decided to create a raised bed in front yard and found this tutorial. Raised garden beds are great for uneven yards! They are also really nice for weed protection! Here is a link for the Garden Club which has a bunch of helpful tips!  I appreciated how it said EXACTLY WHAT TO GET. Ben told me that since he was a pro (ha ha) and I was a novice, that the project would probably take us about 3 hours. We decided to get a water hose and lay out the shape we hope to have. I’m not sure about the hard lines…. Perhaps a curve would be better? Or some angled timbers?

We went outside to look at our yard and take pictures and measure. As we have done some landscaping in the past, we had a lot of tools in the garage and realized the bulk of what we would be spending would be on soil, plants and landscape timbers.

We decided to get a measuring tape and see how long the timbers needed to be. We still aren’t sure entirely how this will come together! Originally we felt like flowers would be a good addition, but then decided on a Japanese Maple. We lost a tree in our front yard and would love to replace it. Or perhaps we should do a little more?

Stay tuned as we figure out everything and what we need to do to make our yard the best it can possibly be!

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