Improve Your Yard With DIY Landscaping

Spring is the perfect time to update the landscaping in your yard, to create new gardens, or just plant a few new trees.

You don’t have to hire an expensive landscape designer for most jobs, most nurseries and garden centers will give you a free consultation and recommendations for the best plants to meet your landscaping needs.

We recently re-landscaped the border around my sister’s house. She had some bushes that looked like they were having a bad hair day, no matter how much you trimmed them back they just looked scraggly. So we pulled up the old bushes to make room for a new look.

First we made a diagram of how she wanted the borders and beds to look when they were finished. Then we took that diagram to the garden center to consult with some of their gardening and landscaping pros.

At the garden center they helped us choose the best plants for her locations after considering several factors including:

• soil drainage
• how much sun the plants would receive
• how large she wanted the plants to grow
• the colors she wanted to incorporate in her landscape

We picked some red roses, evergreens, and other plants and bushes that would look good and compliment what she already had.

Once we had a plan we dug in! We took a chalk marker and marked off where we wanted the edge lines for the new border. Then we used an edger to edge out the pattern. We turned the dirt, and laid in a layer of composted leaf mulch to give the soil more organic matter.

Next we added more mulch and watered everything in.

After the plants were planted, they continued to water them regularly for several weeks to help the plants set in their roots and get a good start.

Now her new border should be ready to look fabulous during this summer’s growing season.