After a months of patient planning (and waiting out the temperamental LA weather), I can happily report that the grass is greener on the other side ... mainly because we actually have grass now!
Finishing our landscaping was a major step for us in the makeover of our home. Unlike the inside of the house, which we got to work on pretty quickly, the yard had pretty much been left untouched since we moved in (and probably for a few decades before that, judging on the size of the overgrown foliage.) We salvaged what we could, uprooted the rest, and refilled our yard with lots of new plants that have the promise of growing into a greenery masterpiece.
Watch our yard makeover above, and check out more details on the before and after and plants we bought below!
We will miss the Pac-Man bush, but our front yard needed a new approach. It's almost unrecognizable from when we first moved in!
Extreme home makeover: garage edition! While the main structure of the garage stayed the same, almost everything else was renovated (the doors, the interior, the driveway) to make this a much more welcoming and useful feature.
Our previous backyard jungle did lend an exotic ambience to our home's metropolitan LA setting, but clearing it out (with a few exceptions) gave us much more space to enjoy. We spend so much more time outside now!
The deck is no longer diving board status! With stairs, a new stained finish, some lighting, and chairs for us to purview our pretty new yard, this outdoor remodel is complete!
These are cabernet grapes, which will grow up and over the pergola, giving it a very vineyard vibe.
Other plants we used in our landscaping are:
Rosemary Lavender (yay for honey bees!) Olive trees Juniper (the spiraled hedges in front of the gym) Podocarpus (the hedges along the driveway) Iceberg roses Pothos (in the stump planter) Succulents (in the trunk planter) Oleander (in the trunk planter) Some other landscaping details we used are bark to keep the moisture in the soil and gravel for drainage
Get the DIY for this Trunk Planter here!
The stump from the Pac-Man bush has been preserved! We power-washed it, sawed the ends so it would stand, drilled a hole in the top, and are repurposing it as a planter.
At the beginning of the backyard renovation, I drew this plan of what I wanted it to eventually look like ...
Looks pretty on point, don't you think?
