Magical Garden Transformation

We completely transformed our garden beds with two days worth of work last weekend. I cannot believe the difference a little mulch made. Well, it was more than a little mulch. It was a LOT of the stuff, but it made everything look a thousand times better. I am relieved that the end result was so positive, because it was a LOT of work. However, it was worth it.

This is what the gardens looked like before. They were full of leaves. Although things were beginning to sprout and bud, nothing looked very good.

While Douglas went with a friend to get the mulch, I started cleaning the leaves out of the gardens against the front of the house. You may remember that I did this for the gardens by the sidewalk a couple of weeks ago. It was time to finish the task. I should have done this last month because it was hard to work around all of the newly sprouted plants.

I had quite a bit done by the time that they returned. Removing the leaves alone made a huge improvement.

These are the leaves from the gardens in just the front yard. It is unbelievable how much was in there.

I had to take out most of my “accessories.” The animals were in the garden when I moved in other than the big cement frog and the glass butterfly that we bought. We brought the shells home from Aruba and the bottles are purely free decorations.

Dave is a great friend. Douglas merely asked him to come over and help us take the cap off of our truck, but instead he offered the use of his brand new truck and even helped us unload the entire two yards of mulch onto a tarp in the driveway.

The least we could do was buy him lunch and give him a few beers. Thanks, Dave!

After he left, Douglas fixed the wheel barrow that we found in the trash last summer. The wheel was broken beyond repair, so he bought a new one and it was good to go.

The sidewalk gardens were the first ones that I mulched. It is back-breaking work, but everything looks much improved.

Douglas cut out the rosemary and curry bushes that died over the winter. I will miss them, but this front garden does look better now that they are gone. I will put in a new rosemary bush later this spring.

With everything dead trimmed out and the new mulch, this garden looks spectacular.

The garden on the left side of the front door does not receive much light. I am so happy that it is finally starting to fill in.

I am particularly glad that the bleeding heart came back this spring. I planted some two summers ago, but it did not survive. Last summer I tried again, but it died in the heat of August. I guess that it was not completely dead this time because here it is again.

At this point we went to the back yard. I was exhausted by this time, but we did manage to get all of the leaves out and some of the mulch in before I collapsed. I had worked out there for six and a half hours with only a brief break to eat a sandwich.

The next morning Douglas had to work. I was tired and achy, but I knew that I needed to finish. Here is what it looked like when I went out in the morning.

This is the magical transformation! With Kahlua to keep me company, I finished the entire job.

Once again we filled every available receptacle with yard debris. It is a good thing that the city takes it away for us. I guess we get some benefits for our high taxes.

If you want to make a big difference in your garden, I suggest using mulch. It makes everything look purposeful. Here are some before and after pictures.

Happy Homemaking!