Implementation

My in-laws have been making some great headway on the paths/bed/patio project (you can read previous entries Design and Paths). So far, the biggest problem my mother-in-law has had is that plants are expensive. She's been doing pretty good at getting plants that can be divided and getting plants from neighbors/clients, so she's doing okay at keeping the costs down - of course until the plants start to fill in, the beds will look pretty sparse. Apparently she's been so keen on planting plants that my father-in-law actually got to the point where he refused to plant anything that wasn't a perennial.

I guess my mother-in-law has found out from one of the neighbors that she's technically supposed to have their back yard 60% grass (oh silly homeowner's associations). But! The neighbor says that he likes the beds better than the dirt patch that they had because buffalo grass does not grow in the shade. They've apparently gotten nothing but compliments on their yard at this point in time. Hopefully they won't be turned into the HOA, because that would kinda suck. But I'm also sure that the HOA would have to let it slide since, as stated before, buffalo grass doesn't grow in the shade.

They haven't started yet on the patio itself, and they still have to fill in more rocks and mulch, but it really is starting to come together:

This photo is looking south from just outside their bedroom door. The front bed (with the sparse rocks) hasn't been worked on - apparently there's some discussion about how much of the grass to remove - it's sparse right now, but it might fill in so my father-in-law wants to leave it, but my mother-in-law thinks that it might die, so she wants to get rid of it now.


This is from the south side of their sun room looking north. They're using cypress mulch for the paths as it's supposed to stay put and not float away.


From the north corner of the yard looking to the south. A bit fuzzy, but you can see the more of the plants - mostly turks cap and liriope right now. I guess she's got a bunch of ruellia from one of her clients that she's planting to see if it will take.


Standing just outside their sunroom door. The spot where I'm standing is the location where the pavers are supposed to go.



Standing just outside the sunroom door and looking north - the bare area that is roughly outlined by rocks is supposed to be pavers, with the bed around the last tree filled in.