My Casa Bella

COME IN THE EVENING, OR COME IN THE MORNING;

COME WHEN YOU'RE LOOK'D FOR,

OR COME WITHOUT WARNING.

KISSES AND WELCOME YOU'LL FIND BEFORE YOU,

AND THE OFTENER YOU COME HERE

THE MORE I'LL ADORE YOU!

-Thomas Osbourne Davis



Welcome To My Casa Bella

My Casa Bella- means-my beautiful home- but it can mean so many other things. How you make your home a home. The sounds of children or pets playing. The aroma of scones in the oven or a lilac candle burning. The flowers blooming in your garden. The home grown vegetables ready to be picked. Grandma's quilt at the foot of the bed. A fire to curl up to with a good book. Or just a family spending time together with love, laughter and a good time.





















Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Landscaping Before & After's

I thought when I put this blog together I'd be posting quite regularly but no, that hasn't happened since we put our last home on the market.
Life has become insane since all that happened.
Projects are never ending, you finish one and there is another waiting for you.
Plus, work & a life take over as well.
But I am now finally posting our Landscaping project.
When we bought this place it certainly wasn't for it's curb appeal
or
how beautiful it looked on the inside,
no way!
It was price, location and the possibilities.
Our front yard was awful,
whoever lived here look like they tried to do something
but because it being an end unit and on a slope
the yard was washing away.
You couldn't plant anything.
They had holly bushes in front but the roots were exposed since the soil was going down the hill,
So it required building a retaining wall and adding soil.
After the OK from the HOA committee,
the project began and Hubby was the one doing all the work since it would of cost us about $4,000 when it was said and done.
Yeah, sure we'll pull out $4,000 from........
 
Building the wall was stressing him out especially since he NEVER built a retaining wall before.
The internet is a great source of information!!!
After building this we didn't need to buy soil, thank goodness, we had enough after the wall went up and walkway went in, so $$$ saved here.
(Below- before adding mulch)
 
 
After:
We weeded and added mulch and planted a spreading plant, ordered it and came in a root bound ball so still waiting to see if it'll do anything, and we planted impatients as well.
So after moving the soil around, replanting the holly bushes which was a bit stressful because the rules on replanting those were specific and if you did one thing wrong they'd die. Happy to say they are healthy and happy.
Here he's now putting in a walkway to the gate. 
He even added steps, again the internet was a great help, this was a bit of a tough one but he figured it out and it turned out great. 
Here is the after, below, after putting in pea gravel
 
 
 
 
(before adding mulch) 
 
(after adding mulch) 
 
(Holly Bushes doing well)
 
This part is always been hard for me, PATIENCE, waiting on the plants to fill in, controlling myself by not buying so many plants since it does get expensive, but I do go to the nurseries and watch out for sales on perennials.
 
 
We were having issues with some neighbors walking through our front yard to cut across to the main entrance, after putting in the wall and landscaping it finally stopped, even after we landscaped one neighbor insisted on still walking through but I haven't seen him do it, maybe because heard me scolding a young boy who thought he was superman and tried to jump from our wall over our flowers and instead he landed on my flowers as he was running down the slope, I must of looked like a crazy person running out my front door, I'm sure others heard me but I didn't care.
Well, the boy never did that again, in fact I haven't seen him and his friend playing out there since then.
Oh well, we're happy with the results and can't wait to see the flowers fill in and can't wait to add more.