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Our Flip: They Can Take The Heat

July 17, 2009 By Liz - It's Great To Be Home 11 Comments

You know that saying, if you can’t take the heat get out of the kitchen? Well, the same thing applies to the backyard at our flip.

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.

Our Flip: Backyard Oasis

July 14, 2009 By Liz - It's Great To Be Home 10 Comments

It’s a total oasis, I tell ya.

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???

Instant Lawn

April 13, 2009 By Liz - It's Great To Be Home 10 Comments

It’s not a secret – I’m no gardener. But it turns out that you don’t have to have anything resembling a green thumb to give your backyard a rockin’ lawn.

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?