Front yard transformation

[prettyliving]

 

Hi Workshop Members! 
It’s been a little while since I’ve posted on here, but here’s a project I’ve been up to that has a pretty cool story behind it.

We recently bought a house, it was built in 1990 and needs some work. While we plan & save for renos I’ve been tidying up the front and back yard. One day while I was trying to tidy up the driveway (the grass was very overgrown) I discovered wooden garden bed edging buried underneath the grass running along the driveway. I was pretty excited and got straight to work digging up the grass to reveal that wooden edging. As I got closer to the house the edging took a turn off into the grass area. 

 

I then did some research and found an old picture of our house on google maps from 15+years ago and saw that there once was an extra parking area right in front of the house!

As our driveway is a single car driveway, this would be perfect for parking so I decided to follow the old wooden edging and dig it all up. By shovel! 🤪

 

Underneath it all was compact gravel - which explains why the grass struggled so badly there in summer!  

It took a few weeks and we filled around 15 trailer loads worth of sand and grass.
I also discovered all the old retic and some more edging along the garden beds around the house. 
Turns out around 15 years ago the original owners wanted more lawn so had a truck dump a heap of sand over the entire front yard. 
Most of the original wooden edging was still in good useable condition, while other sections were pretty rotten so I replaced that area (around the garden beds) with large rocks that I got for free. 

I also dug out another garden bed along the front and planted some hedge plants for future privacy. 
Overall I’m so happy with how much better and practical our front yard is! The best part was it only cost around $300 (the cost of the hedge plants) as we salvaged most of the original garden bed edging and did all the work ourselves. ☺️

Before:

 

AFTER:

 

 

[MitchellMc]

What a super-exciting project, @prettyliving! Finding that garden edging must have been like a mini treasure hunt. 

Digging all that by hand must have been tiring work, but I'm sure a great workout. What other projects do you have on the to-do list for your new home?

Many thanks for sharing your front yard transformation, and I look forward to seeing what project you tackle next. 

Mitchell

[mich1972]

Love this story ! Been following the whole process on instagram 😃🥰

[KatieC]

Loving this transformation @prettyliving!

You have added curb appeal and a car spot back where it belongs. I cannot wait to see your hedge fully grown, it will make quite the entrance to your home. 

Katie

[prettyliving]

Thanks! @MitchellMc 

It was definitely a good work out but I actually really enjoyed it. Seeing the progress was very rewarding. 
We plan on doing a kitchen reno and also a full alfresco reno including extending the back deck and replacing the top balcony - it’s all very weathered.

[prettyliving]

Thank you! @mich1972 Im glad you enjoyed it, it’s been a lot of fun 😊

[prettyliving]

Thanks so much Katie! @KatieC 

The plants we planted are called Pittosporum tenuifolium 'Silver Sheen' and they are really fast growing. We planted some along the back fence when we first moved in 6 months ago and those ones have already doubled in size so I hope these ones do the same and grow quickly. 😍

[Noelle]

Such a terrific transformation! Hard work but oh so worth the effort - well done

[prettyliving]

Thanks so much! @Noelle 

[Jason]

How is your front yard looking now after a couple of months of Spring @prettyliving?

Jason