Weddingbee boards

Soo some of you might remember pictures I had posted previously back in late winter of my horrible neglected deck and front yard.

The last few years & dollars  had been spent fixing our landslide/ mud pit ... that  was suppose to be part of our backyard! The Mud use to come to our back door and it was all clay mud so you pretty much could not go behind the house... LOTS OF money, blood , sweat, tears, more sweat bumps scraps bruises and sore muscles 22 ton of rock and 2 years  later LOL.. We have our retaining wall walkway and a water feature that can be heard seen and enjoyed from our double living room windows.. Waterfall and pond looks much nicer in person .. looks beautiful at night with the lights in the falls and the fogger. This is just the very center part ... where the waterfall is... it had to extend all the length of our house... and it has Juniper Evergreen bushes planted in between the rocks to help hold the rock back and add some green and some color .. there is also a flowerbed along the front of the rock at the retaining wall edge

This is how it pretty much looks around the house ... excuse the bikes...

BEFORE

SO BLAH (aww poor shaggy puppy she had her spring improvement too with a nice new cut)

NOW (While this is still a work in progress we got a truck load of mulch being delivered this week I think it has been a vast improvement so far)

So not wanting to spend alot of money I refinished and repurposed things I had and only added in a few new items here and there and added pops of bright color

I still need to add a trashcan back to the deck ..... bc this is the best place to put it but I dont know what i want to do... I have that metal surround like you can see in  before pic.. I am thinking of possibly painting it black as well as the trash can lid?? Bc I cant find anything else I think looks nice

And now the underneath...

BEFORE

AFTER: All it needs is mulch and some Flowers when its time to plant

This is infront of our driveway area our early spring project... It needs mulch and Flowers too and those are Hardy Gardenia bushes.... It started out with just railroad ties infront and back and we added the stones raised the bed and rocked behind it to keep it from pushing into the house

SO THIS IS OUR PROBLEM AREA

We plan to extend the walkway out all the way beside the driveway and hopefuly hope to eventually concrete at least the top part and pad of our driveway bc it gets ruts in it too bc of the rain...  but we have a big problem area in our front yard because of water runoff.... Its beside the walkway the soil keeps erodingaway bc of the slope of our yard... so the timbers are temporary fix I think this is going to need a retaining wall... unless anyone else has a suggested solution

JUST FOR FUN...

This the remains of 2 truckloads of dirt we had to haul in and a broken wheelbarrow  that we fixed 3 times and then  replaced halfway through moving it... I am really thinking with a good cleaning maybe some new paint ... it could be a good recycled planter ??? Opinions on this...

And just to make my "Cookie" look better and me like a better furbaby mom.. here is My Shitzhu with her new spring makeover

LOl thanks she is rotten;.... and what we are doing must be making some difference because neighbors have commented on it as well as family and friends.  (NOW i just wish we could convience our only real neighbor we see except down across the street to get rid of the junk yard in his backyard so we dont have to look at that mess

Cutest dog ever!

And the deck/yard look good too! I love the red chairs, so bright and happy! The crosspattern/trellis under the deck behind the trees/shrubs is so great! Love it!

@sparkle: Thanks... I know i debated about those old chairs to toss or repaint they were just peeling beat up old chairs but they were solid which made me want to keep them! I LOVE THAT Paint though I seriously want to paint lots more outside with it LOL.. like maybe that wheelbarrow ! It Painters Touch By Rustoleum in colonial red it is high gloss outdoor paint by rustoleum. A little went a long way.. it was like $7 at home depot for a quart and I did 2 coats and i barely made a dent in the can i did have to sand prime and paint the chairs first but it seems like it will be really durable.

Beautiful! I wish it wasn't snowing here so I could go back to landscaping!

With your problem area, could you put some small culverts in and then put a flower bed on top of it? That way your bed wouldn't wash out.

@PitBulLover: Awesome hope it goes well for you... hope you share pics... . we have alot of stuff started  my house is becoming a greenhouse LOLbut still afraid to plant much bc of some lingering cold weather that always comes. We always plant some too we put a small garden in the upper part of our yard (potatoes, tomatos , cucumbers, corn, onions, peppers, and we are gonna do pumpkins this year) and in the flower bed there infront of the rock wall.. we have strawberries. We are Not very good farmers but we try LOL! We had some trial and error with some stuff the last two years but we are learning.

My husbands motto is if he cant eat it he doesnt want to grow it

@farmgirl2106: Thank you... well i am having a hard time picturing the culverts I can only think like big ones ditchline side of the road kinda thing.

We are just having that problem wtih  water away from the house when he built .. even the guttering but still the gravity pulls it down hill. and causes ruts in our driveway and this part of our yard...

You could maybe slope it to one or two tiny "ditches" then, and put rocks where you intend the water to flow. It'd be above ground, but it looks like you are ok with rocks, and then the rest could be a flower bed?

You could also do the rocky "ditches", put in mulch or more rocks everywhere else, and then use planters so you ensure that your flowers won't wash away. You could decorate with those globes or various "moon beam" products that catch solar rays, and/or a shepherd's hook with a hanging basket, and/or a birdbath. They have so many styles that it you can go in any decoration too!

Ooh, now I'm getting ideas... You really do have me getting so excited for gardening season! :)