Marathon Mulching

We had one unit (7.4 yards) of mulch this delivered this past Friday. The before photo doesn't really do justice to how massive the pile of mulch was to begin with--it was as deep as it was wide. And after three days of shoveling, dumping and spreading mulch we only have a few wheel barrows full left.

Adding mulch to the slopes and garden areas was pretty straight forward but the parkways required a lot of work. They were overflowing with dirt, grass and weeds which all had to be removed and both sides of the parkway had to be edged. Unfortunately, the dirt was beyond rock-hard and even the edger we borrowed from our neighbor wouldn't make a dent in it. David ended up using a shovel and some serious brute strength to get the edging done. One shovel broken in half mid-way through the job! That gives you an idea of how hard the dirt was (or how crappy our shovel was).

The "pile" -- before and after

David edging the parkway right before the shovel broke.

The mulching is done!!

The last two pieces of the puzzle in the back yard are adding the veggie garden and extending the fence all the way to the retaining wall.

We used the left over mulch to cover all the garden areas including this newly landscaped spot.

After much manual labor, our yard finally looks presentable! We lost count of how many neighbors and passer-bys stopped to comment on how great the place looks. It's always nice to hear that others are enjoying the fruits of our labor as much as we are.

The final phase of landscaping is to plant the laurel hedge. That should be delivered and planted very soon (famous last words...)!