New House: side garden makeover

Side Garden Before

Overgrown, half dead, hard to walk past and an eyesore. The good plants were dug up and given to our neighbors for transplanting into their backyards.

Clean Slate!

We added 10 bags of top soil to our new cleaned out beds. Stinky! $2.15 per bag for top soil.

We purchased 5 trellises from “the depot” for $10 a pop. We used cement screw/anchors to attach them to the cinder wall. First you want to pre-drill with a cement drill bit and then use a specialized cement screw/anchors with a hex head to securely attach. We paid $12.00 for the bit and screws.

We planted 5 Bougainvillea plants in front of the trellises. Bougainvillea grows like wild in Southern California. This particular variety is Barbara Karst and has bright pink blooms. The plants will eventually vine up the trellis creating a wall of flowers. The flowers were $6.00 each for a gallon size container.

Barbara Karst

We added a layer of top soil across the top of the new bed and then a good drink of water.

Next we planted 3 flats of dwarf mondo grass. They were $15 per flat. As the summer progresses the grass should spread across the entire bed creating a simple and lush ground cover. At the moment it looks pretty pitiful. We are planning on taking a picture every few weeks to see the growth progress over the summer.