Flower Bed from Hell

My "Tackle" this week has to do with a flower bed in our front yard that is on a slope. We hadn't touched it since we moved in last spring except to rip out the dead stuff, and we really didn't know what to do with the space. A friend who is a landscape architect suggested leveling it out and putting up a wall to give us more yard which I would have loved, but that was going to be really, really expensive.

What it looked like on Saturday morning...


I don't know the people who lived here before us, but I think that it is safe to say that they do NOT have a green thumb. Looks like they just randomly planted stuff, doesn't it? The only thing worth keeping was the magnolia tree in the bottom corner which I hope will grow big and beautiful.


I took these pictures and a scale drawing to a local nursery to have a guy help me design something for the space. Kenny was a really nice guy from Hawaii who seemed to know his stuff. I told him I wanted low maintenance and drought tolerant and he delivered. To save money, the Golfer and I spent all day last Saturday planted our new roses, shrubs, and ground cover.

And by Saturday afternoon...


Eventually the ground cover will take over and there won't be so much dirt. Plus the plants will grow and fill in the space. I think it looks nice. Of course, anything was going to be an improvement from what we had, so calling it nice isn't saying much.