The mission to eliminate the front lawn continues. The path to the front door replaced some of it a couple summers ago. We put in a burgundy bunny grass edge on one side of the front path a few weeks ago which eliminated another strip, and we bought more grasses for the opposite side so it will match.
And this weekend we dug up some more lawn (if you can call the dry desiccated remains at the end of this hot, dry summer a lawn) and put in a small paver area where I want to put a bench under the shade of the dogwood tree.
The pavers we chose were kind of an impulse buy. I had another more ordinary square paver in mind at first, but when I saw these I really liked them. They don’t match the pavers we used on the path, but I wanted the uneven edge and hope to coax creeping thyme and moss into the cracks. I also thought it would be better for us, as amateurs, to use larger pieces. Easier to get level and less likely to shift around later. Fingers crossed.
It took some effort to figure out how to lay them out correctly. When we bought them they were just kind of stacked, and it was a bit of a jigsaw to get them all in the right order. It took my youngest child who is good at puzzles to get it right when we laid it out on the lawn before we put it in place.
The older son was also roped in to be muscle. He has a lot more endurance than I do! With our heavy clay soil, it took a pickax to work a lot of that ground out.
And of course, because it’s us, it also took an extra trip back to the place where we bought them to get a few more when I realized it was going to be too short for the size bench I want. It was hard to calculate how much space they would really cover when they were such uneven shapes just stacked on a pallet. For future reference, 16 of them used in total. There are two left over. Stepping stones, maybe?
Sunday we filled in dirt back around the pavers and I planted upright and trailing heathers as well as some lavender and a few other transplants around the edge.
While I put plants in the ground, my husband dug out another strip of lawn on the opposite side of the walkway and we planted another row of the burgundy bunny grasses to match the other side. Some landscaping fabric and some bark and the edges are finished.
I still need to rake up some of the rocks and clay clods left on the dying lawn, and there are more plants to get into the ground, but we called it good for the weekend.
Next up for improvements will be making a bench.
Yellow Bird Stitches 