See?

While I love trees and hate to chop them down (my preference is to “make it work” like we did at our last flip), this sucker bit the dust a long time ago.  The lack of a single leaf was a dead giveaway.

So it had to go.

Timberrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!

It took a surprising long time for the guys to chop this tree into manageable pieces.

This stump was quite a doozy.

After about an hour of grinding away at it with this machine, about half of the stump was still left.  But after another zillion hours, the stump was thoroughly annihilated and turned into sawdust.

And do you remember our little friend the “pipe-cleaner tree,” as one of you so aptly named it?

We had no mercy for that little guy either.

I guess we’re ruthless like that.

What’s your stance on chopping down trees?  Should it only be reserved for the ones that are dead or dying, or do you think it’s okay to give’em the axe if they’re ugly or don’t work with the rest of your landscaping?

So here’s how it’s going to go – I’m going to give you a slew of excuses and explanations for the sad state of our backyard and then I’m going to show you the shameful pictures – and you’re not going to judge me.  Mmkay, got a deal?

I realized our backyard had gotten out of control when I found myself admiring the lovely dappled light coming in the frosted window in our bathroom.  You see, there shouldn’t have been any dappled light because there shouldn’t be any trees outside our bathroom window.  This is how that little area of the backyard looked in April (back when we laid some sod):

And here’s how it looked last weekend:

Another area went from this:

to this:

Yeah.  There are no words for the disaster that our backyard had become.  It’s embarrassing.  Who knew our backyard could go back to nature in just a few months?  (But in our defense, this area is around the side of the house where we never look.  See?  I promised you excuses!).

Anyway, last Friday and Saturday we decided to take the first step toward ridding ourselves of this ridiculous eyesore by tearing up the jungle, along with all the random pieces of cement and edging that were sprinkled around.  The plan is to replace the flower beds with sod (which we can handle).  The area along the house went from this:

to this:

And those jungle-y areas now look a little something like this:

I know, we still have a long way to go before it’s remotely acceptable, but we made some serious progress – hallelujah! You can take a look at all of the jungle debris as proof of our progress:

And the concrete pavers in the pile below were quite a hot commodity – about half of them were gone from the curb after just a few minutes!

We’re hoping to complete the transformation next weekend, so fingers crossed that we get our acts together and make that happen.  What about you guys?  Are you as appalled by our backyard as I am?  Tackle any big projects over the weekend?

P.S.  You may have noticed that there’s no Inspiration Tuesday blog party today – I hope that hasn’t thrown you off!  There just didn’t seem to be  as much interest as I’d hoped, so it’s been retired for awhile – maybe it’ll make a comeback someday!  In the meantime, you are still more than welcome to link to your inspiring posts in the Comments section – just be sure to put your link in “quotes” so that it will show up!

Before we got ahold of it, the front yard at the flip was a hot mess:

The house was barely even visible behind two humongous magnolia trees that totally obscured the roof and most of the exterior – which might have been a good thing, given the not-so-lovely appearance of the house at that time.

And not only were the magnolia trees obscuring the house, they were blocking out so much sunlight with their dense and low-hanging limbs that grass couldn’t even grow over much of the yard – mmm, mud yard – just what everyone wants!

Jason and I knew that the trees were awesome so we didn’t want to cut them down, but we didn’t really know what could be done to (a) let the grass grow, (b) let the house be seen, and (c) let potential buyers mosey up the sidewalk without getting whacked by branches.  After we asked around a bit, my aunt came up with this brilliant yet common-sense solution – lift their skirts!!  (Her words, not mine!!).

Enter Landscaper Jared – you might remember him from such adventures as Fun With Big Machines and Backyard Oasis.  I think it’s only fitting that the Landscaper Jared series gets a third installment, don’t you?

Anyway, Landscaper Jared shimmied right up those ginormous magnolias with a rented chainsaw in one hand and his life insurance policy in the other – kids, don’t try this at home!

Those low-hanging branches didn’t stand a chance!

After we waited a few hours and didn’t hear any sirens, we swung back by the flip and were greeted by this awesome sight:

Have you ever seen so many branches in your entire life?  It took three trips to the dump to get rid of that huge pile.

After the magnolias were pruned and the ground was touched by sunlight for the first time in decades, we knew that anything we planted would finally have a chance for survival – no more mud pit!!  We trekked over to Home Depot and bought a slew of bushes, plants and flowers – red tip photinas, holly bushes, purple ferns, and impatiens.  Once we hauled them back to the house in Landscaper Jared’s truck, we spaced out each plant and flower on either side of the house:

That gave us a chance to eyeball the arrangement and spacing before Landscaper Jared planted all those puppies:

In no time, the front of the flip was looking about a thousand times better.  But even though the beds full of ivy were no longer, the front yard was still begging for some new sod:

Landscaper Jared laid about a pallet and a half of St. Augustine over the bare spots in the front yard:

Curious how Landscaper Jared got the grass to curve around the flower beds oh-so-perfectly?  I was too, until I spied Landscaper Jared with his secret weapon:

A machete!!  Apparently he just gives the grass a few whacks with his trusty machete and he gets a perfect cut every time – man, I wish I had known that when we were laying sod in our backyard!

The lawn has now settled in and is happy as a clam, and the new plantings are looking fab.  Have any of you tackled laying sod before?  Got any landscaping tips or tricks up your sleeve?  Fill us in!

That puppy gets H-O-T in the Texas heat, so heat and sun-tolerant plants were a must when we were thinking about landscaping around the pool.

We also had a really cool existing, unidentified palm-like tree that we wanted to work around:

With our requirements for hot ‘n hardy plants that fit in with our funky palm tree, coming up with a tropical, oasis-like landscaping scheme was a no-brainer.

Now that you’ve heard all about how we transformed the backyard, I thought I’d give you the scoop on which plants we picked, and why.  Here we go!!

These plants below form the main focal point of the backyard.  By choosing plants of varying heights, we were able to break up the large expanse of fence behind the pool, and add some texture and visual interest to keep your eye moving from plant to plant so that you don’t miss a single one of those beauties.

While we wanted the majority of the plants to be green to form kind of a backdrop for the gorgeous pool, I couldn’t resist a few fun pops of color with those giant hibiscus – they had me from hello!

Each one of these tropical plants is tolerant of full-sun (a necessity in this backyard) and lots of heat.  The few days a year that Dallas gets below freezing, all the new owner will need to do to keep these plants happy is cover them with a sheet – easy!

We also added a little planting vignette over by the new fence that was constructed to hide the pool equipment from view.  Our goal was simply to break up the fence a little bit (a common theme, it seems) and add a little pop of color in another corner of the yard.

So now you know all the nitty gritty about those fun tropical plants hanging out by the pool!  The word on the street is that the pool will be ready to swim in this weekend – yippee!!  Now, here’s my big question to you guys – does anybody know what the heck that unidentified palm-like tree is over by the pool?  I wanna know!!

This post is shared with Hooked on Houses.

Remember that awesome brother-in-law of mine?  The landscaper?  Let me refresh your memory:

Well, it turns out that Jared’s also a miracle worker.

When we first bought the flip, the backyard was abysmal.  And that’s being kind.

See what I mean?  We knew that it had potential, and that it could eventually turn into a huge selling point for the house – but there sure was a long way to go.

I’ll fill you in on all the details with the pool later, but the landscaping was a huge hurdle all in itself.  Basically, there wasn’t any landscaping.  No grass, no flowers, no plants – it was kind of a wasteland back there.  And there were lots of stumps – oodles of them.

There was no question that the stumps had to go – so two awesome guys went to work and had them all removed within 2 days (they might also be upgraded to miracle worker status).  Take a look at this big sucker, mid-demolish:

It doesn’t look too impressive in the picture, but trust me – in person it was about 2 feet in diameter!

Once the ground was clear, my fancy brother-in-law Jared got to work bringing in the fill dirt and leveling out the backyard – remember that escapade?  Then he laid out these big rocks to form the two planting beds:

I was very impressed that he managed to manhandle these ginormous and heavy beasts into position.

Then it was time for the sod – ahh, the sod:

It took about a pallet and a half to fully sod the backyard – that’s a lot!!  (And all while working in 100+ Texas heat – I’m pretty sure Jared deserves a medal).

After the sod was down, it was time for the fun stuff – plants!!!  The hubby and I took our merry selves to Lowes and had quite the field day in the tropical plant section – no backyard oasis is complete without tropical plants, you know!!

After we wrestled all the plants back to the flip, we laid them all out into position – it took us awhile, and we took turns telling each other where to move the plants.  And let me tell you, some of those palm trees are really prickly!!  My right arm looked like I had lost a fight with a fork (ok, I’m exaggerating, but it wasn’t pretty).  Here are the plants all lined up and ready to find their places:

And here are all those gorgeous plants in their new homes:

And sorry, I couldn’t resist – they were begging to be photographed from every angle, so here you go!

Awesome, right??  Here’s a huge thank you to Jared, who gave up oodles of time to help us out and created a totally gorgeous backyard oasis that any buyer is sure to adore.  Thank you!!

So what do you guys think?  Are you ready to move in yet?  I know I’m ready to jump in that pool!!  What’s your backyard like – did you go tropical, go for all lawn, or are you a sucker for bushes and flower beds?  We want to hear about it!!  (And later I’ll fill you guys in on the plants that we chose, so stay tuned!)

P.S.  A little birdie told me that Jared is thinking about moving to Dallas next year to start his own landscaping company – how cool would that be???

Want a sneak peek at what’s going on at our flip at this very moment?  Check it out:

Oh yeah, that’s right – it’s my brother-in-law on a ProTrac.  [A ProTrac is like a skid loader that you stand on - and a skid loader is a piece of equipment that you can attach different types of tools to, like buckets, augers, trenchers, etc. - don't worry, I didn't know either until yesterday.]

And what is he doing on that crazy piece of equipment, you might ask?  Well, he’s going to move this:

over here, to raise the ground level after we removed the original pool decking:

He started leveling things out yesterday by hand, and after about 4 hours of constant work it looked like this:

[Are you oohing and aahing over the pool?  Wait til you see what it used to look like!!  Don't worry, I'll fill you in on what's been going on with the pool a little later.]

Clearly it was time to part with the $160 it would cost to rent a ProTrac – using the machine will speed this process up by about 4 days.  Talk about a worthwhile investment!!

Wanna see how that big pile of fill dirt wound up in the driveway?  If you were following my Tweets, you know it was no easy feat!!  Here are the pics, thanks to my hubby’s quick work with his camera phone:

Maneuvering that dump truck down the alley and around all the power lines and the dumpsters was apparently a total nail-biter.  And they had to do it twice!!  Luckily there was no big disaster (although the hubby said he hid in the garage during the power line scare . . . I should hope so!!).

Now you’re up to speed on today’s activities over at the flip – things are moving so fast and looking awesome, so hopefully it will be on the market in no time!

What’s the biggest piece of equipment you’ve ever used?  For me, it’s a drill  - what about you?  A table saw?  A jack hammer?  Maybe you’ve conquered the ProTrac!

Be sure to swing by DIY Day over at A Soft Place to Land – you’re sure to find some fab DIY projects to either admire or attempt yourself!

You see, the prior homeowner planted some mint directly in the bare earth in our garden.  This is a big no-no because mint has underground shoots called “rhizomes” – instead of growing down into the ground like normal plants, these rhizomes are basically like tentacles that grow out from the mint and encourage the plant to spread.  To keep the shoots from going crazy, it’s recommended that you plant mint in pots or in areas that are surrounded by barriers like metal at least 10 inches deep – otherwise the mint will escape and invade all of the ground around it.  Sounds hardcore, right??

So back to my little cautionary tale.  Remember how we laid new sod about two weeks ago?  Part of that project involved removing metal and concrete edging from the flower beds so that we could turn those beds into part of the lawn.  I got a little overly ambitious and removed the edging from one flower bed in particular that we were eventually planning on turning into grass – but not right away.  This bed, of course, housed the entire world’s supply of mint.  And now, just two weeks later, said mint has escaped – into our lawn.  Darnit!

Now the million dollar question – what do I do now that the mint has escaped?  Here are some words of encouragement that I found here and here on the web:

• “It may already be a lost cause.  Your only hope is to sell your house and move to a new one.”
• “Napalm.”
• “Face it, mint is eternal.”
• “Perhaps your children or grandchildren will take over, after you’ve gone.”
• “I will have to keep up my search for the perfect murder weapon against the mint plants.”
• “Mint is the demon spawn of all garden plants, and is truly evil.”

Double darnit.

You want to know what’s even worse?  In my quest to rid my lawn of these nefarious mint plants, I just yanked them up – apparently another no-no, because any little pieces of root that are left behind will be called into action to sprout new mint plants.  Eeek!

I’m now in kill mode – how can I keep this crazy mint from taking over the entire yard?  And how can I kill the mint without killing the surrounding grass?  I found some potential solutions here:

• Spraying the mint with Clorox bleach
• Spraying the mint with a mixture of 2 cups of salt, 1 teaspoon of dish soap and 1 gallon of white vinegar
• Covering the mint with thick layers of newspaper, followed by a layer of mulch to smother it out
• Spraying the mint with Round-up weed killer
• Digging each little root up

What do you think?  Can I squelch these little mint monsters . . .

or am I destined to spend the rest of my life making mojitos?  On second thought, maybe I should just leave the mint after all . . .

Have any of you had mint go crazy in your gardens?  How do you keep it under control, and do you have any tips for killing it?  Quick, the mint is getting closer . . .

Let’s get a close up of that gorgeous bloom.

Who knew that something so beautiful could be hiding in our yard??  And these were even the fancy double peonies, meaning that they have extra petals and are super gorgeous – love it!!

I’ve been smitten with peonies for quite some time, and they were even the flowers in my wedding bouquet.

When I got home from work last night, I was delighted to see about 10 peony blossoms hanging their heavy heads out in our yard – I couldn’t resist picking just a few!!  They are such a friendly and gorgeous touch in our half bathroom.

The pale pink color of the blossoms looks fresh and springy against the pale blue of the walls, porcelain sink and chrome accents.

And since I’m such a sucker for peonies, I just had to take a few glamour shots with the macro setting on my camera.

Aren’t the blossoms amazing?  I can’t get over the fullness and texture of these beauties.  While I was marveling over how gorgeous they were, Lexie couldn’t figure out what these flowers were doing on the floor.

I swear, those blossoms are huge – they’re almost as big as my cat!!

Is there a special bloom that you’re smitten with?  What flowers were in your wedding bouquet?  I hope there are some other peony-lovers out there!!

P.S.  I wanted to let everybody know that A Lil’ Welsh Rarebit, one of my favorite blogs, has been nominated for a Blogger’s Choice Award – head on over and vote for Christy if you get the chance!!

On Friday afternoon, our backyard was just a choppy mess of random plantings:

After just 3 hours of work (no lie), our backyard now looks like this:

So much better, right?  (And clearly, it’s not a dirty job at all – hehe).  Here’s how we did it:

1.  Clear the ground.  This was the most time-consuming part of the project (about 2 hours out of our total of 3 hours for this project).  We pulled up all of the old edging (a combo of cement blocks and metal edging).

We stacked the cement blocks in the driveway to either give away on Craigslist or use in a later project.  The next step was a little more laborious – we took out all of the old shrubs, weeds and random flowers (which were no longer flowering), leaving us with two big patches of dirt.  As we pulled out the old plants, we made sure to pick up any rocks (there were bunches!), roots and twigs that we came across.  You can tell the hubby is pretty proud here after he conquered these ridiculous roots:

(And you thought your roots were bad!  Hehe. )

2.  Mix it up. After the soil was free of any debris, we got to work with our shovels and chopped up the first few inches of the soil, which was really hard and compacted.  We chose to till the soil the old school way (by hand) instead of renting a tiller – not too hard and it saved us a few bucks.

3.  Top it off. Once the soil is nice and loose, it’s time to add some nutrient-rich topsoil / fertilizer.  We used about 6 bags ($30 worth) of Scott’s Turf Builder:

( I don’t know why it insists on being sideways – sorry! )

4.  Even it out. Obviously you don’t want a lumpy lawn, so even out the soil with a rake or your hands (we think hands work the best).  Also make sure that you aren’t creating any low spots that will collect water, and that the soil is graded to drain away from the house.

5.  Figure out “what” and “how much”. Before we headed out to Home Depot, we busted out the tape measurer to figure out how many square feet of sod we would need (turns out we needed 115 square feet, which amounted to 46 pieces of sod).  We also took a look at our existing lawn to determine the type of grass that we have.  We have St Augustine, which is really common in our part of Texas – it’s hardy, drought-resistant, and loves sun but can tolerate shade (this last fact is really great for us, since that part of the yard gets a fair amount of shade).  After figuring out what and how much we needed, we headed off to Home Depot and they loaded up my car with 46 lovely pieces of St. Augustine sod for a total of about 80 bucks.  (FYI – sod comes in pieces that are 24 x 16 inches, and garden centers like Home Depot also sell seed for those of you that have the patience to watch the grass grow, and plugs for when you need to fill in little gaps in your lawn.)

6.  Lay it all out. Once we unloaded all of the sod out of my car and into the backyard, it was time to get down to business.  My husband became the official sod-layer, while I acted as the sod waterer – it was a tough job, but someone had to do it.  Basically, I would water the back of each piece of sod before he laid it down so that it would be a little easier for the roots to break through to the ground.  Then my hubby laid the sod in a brick pattern, cutting the sod with garden shears whenever a randomly-sized piece was needed.  Sod is laid in a brick pattern (staggered) so that you don’t have big seams throughout your entire yard.

7.  Start the waterworks. After all of the sod is laid out, water it like crazy – like big-time crazy.  You want the soil on the back of each piece of sod to kind of melt into the ground below, so don’t be shy with that garden hose.  And give the new grass a serious soaking every day for the next two weeks, and then a big-time soak every other day for the next few weeks.  Basically, you can’t water the new grass too much.

8.  Enjoy. Looking out over your handiwork is pretty darn satisfying, so grab a drink and set up shop on the back porch to admire your lawn for awhile.  Oh yeah – you might want to wash all that dirt off first.

Now that doesn’t sound too hard, does it?  Honestly, the hubby and I were shocked at how easy it all was, and how quickly we finished.  The preparation part took about 2 hours, and the sod-laying part took another hour – 3 hours total for 115 square feet of new lawn.  And our efforts cost us just over $100, which is about $300 less than the bid a local lawn guy gave us for the job.  Now our yard looks so much better, and we get to brag about our landscaping skills – not too bad for about $100 and only 3 hours of work!

What landscaping projects are you thinking about tackling in your yard this spring?

After all of the remodeling we had the inside of our house pretty well under control, but the landscaping was something that we couldn’t even begin to think about – and it seriously needed help.  While our front and backyard are still in dire need of some TLC, Mom and Dad contributed this gorgeous little guy to jump start our efforts:

Ok, maybe he wasn’t too cute when he was planted in November, but look at him now!

Just gorgeous, I tell ya.  We found a shady spot in the front yard for this Bloodgood Japanese Maple, watered him like crazy once a week, and now he’s as happy as can be.  Our yard looks so much better with the Japanese Maple’s splashy red leaves, and hopefully the rest of the yard will eventually look as good as he does!

Got any tried and true housewarming gifts that we should all give?  What’s your favorite housewarming gift that you’ve ever received?  Fill us in!