Landscaping: Day 1

Project Landscaping the Side Yard: Day 1 (Yesterday) was a success, I'd say. You saw where we started (in this post), and here's where we're at this morning:

It's definitely a start. Here's what we did yesterday....

First thing was plan out what we were wanting to do, the supplies we were going to need, and then going to the stores and purchasing those supplies. Picking out the supplies is always the most stressful part for us.

In the end though, we ended up with a truckload full of needed items as a starting point. We plan on picking up more bricks and pavers as we go, since we wanted to start out with getting an idea of how many we would need, then get more the next day.

Yesterday we picked up the following (I'll do a cost breakdown on all the supplies at the end of the project):
- 20 retaining wall bricks
- 4 bags of mulch (we already had 4 more leftover from the front yard)
- 5 bags of paver sand
- 5 bags of river pebbles for drainage right up next to the house
- a roll of nylon string for laying out the area and leveling bricks
- 2 large rolls of weed fabric
- 1 hydrangea plant
- 4 hostas

After we had all of our supplies needed to start the project, Trent trimmed up the bushes that are already there.

Then we raked up the excess sticks/branches, did some measuring and put down stakes and string to mark off the area we were going to be working with.

The area we measured off was about 9 ft. by 30 ft.

Next Trent tilled up the grass in the area we were working - we tilled about half of it to work with so far. Once we get a little further we'll have to do till the rest.

Then we just started laying down the edging bricks. Since it's on a bit of a slope and we wanted the bricks to sit level, Trent had to carefully line them up with the string and position them by digging up dirt in some spots and filling it in others. 

We began with one row, then as the ground sloped, had to dig in and layer the bricks on top of each other until we ended up with 3 layers in kind of a mini retaining wall.

And here's where we stopped for the day:

Trent has to work this morning and is picking up more bricks after work today. Once he gets home this afternoon, we're planning on working at it some more. Today I'm hoping to get this section finished for the most part - plant my hostas and hydrangea, lay down some weed fabric and maybe even some mulch. We'll see! In the end we plan on also laying down a flagstone path next to the edging, that goes from the front porch/sidewalk to the driveway.

Right now my hydrangea is on the porch waiting to be planted...I'm excited but nervous to plant it! Last year I tried planting a smaller one in this same corner of the house, and it died. I'm hoping it was because we didn't water it enough, and not because this location is not the best (it's on the west side of the house, and I've heard that they should get morning sunlight, not afternoon.) Nevertheless, I really want to try it again and see what happens. I've been reading up on hydrangea tips and am hoping that this area gets enough shade and water that they'll stay alive....I hope. :)