landscaping overhaul

Springtime reveals the harsh effects of the winter. Let's just say our landscaping needed some work.  We had mulch beds along our fence line.  The mulch had broken down and the weed barrier fabric was left exposed.  Nick and I decided river rock was the way to go since we had other landscaping finished that way.

So a couple weeks later about 9645 pounds of river rock was dropped in our driveway.  After a few hours of laying new weed barrier fabric and rock, we had most of the fence line done.   

I found that the stakes that come with the weed barrier fabric are unnecessary if you're laying rock.  They easily broke when pushing them into the ground.  If you just use a couple rocks to pin the corners of the fabric before you cover it, the weight of all the rock will do a fine job of keeping the fabric in place.

Now we focused our attention to the existing rock beds with the quarter of the rock pile that was left in our driveway.  Pulling up the weeds and grass was the first step, and filling in the new rock was the second step. 

Nick did a good job with the large flat pathway rocks by pulling up all the existing river rock and the pathway rocks, digging a little deeper, laying the weed barrier fabric, and filling it all back in.

Be sure to have some quality rubber grip gloves, some pruning shears for difficult weeds and baby trees, and a good flat edge shovel.  We used our sharp edge shovel as well just to double team the work and it quickly dulled, so avoid that when you can.

Overall I would say the outcome of this renovation is amazing.  Hopefully the maintenance will also be lower for the years to come as well.

kind of before	after
before	after
before	after