So the house we bought last September had a pretty wild front yard. It was probably really nice at some point in the past, but the house had been a rental for a couple of years and then had been vacant for the last two years. So the bushes & vines were pretty overgrown and in bad shape, and there were weeds everywhere. The wife and I spent some time trying to whip things back into shape, but really we just want a low-maintenance setup so we decided to pay some landscapers to come in, rip everything up, and put in a bunch of rock and low-maintenance plants.

Right side of drive before:




Right side of drive after:





Left side of drive before:




Left side of drive after:





Left of yard before:



Left of yard after:




All in all we're very happy with it. We've had a couple people drive by and stop to tell us how much better it looks now.

 

you live on Ellsworth Ave.? that's awesome!

 

landscaping makes me cringe, I hate the upkeep

 

i really need to do something with my front. been working on the inside too much, and i have no idea what to do with it.

 

i love landscaping

i don't like rocks personally. went with black mulch at my house.

 

It looks much better than before ... i personally dont like the rocks, but for an area that size, it would have been so much more expensive, time consuming and lots of maintenance if that was filled with plants

 

I would actually prefer mulch over rocks as well, but this is a pretty large area and I really don't want to have to re-mulch every year. There's still a pretty large mulch area by the front door, several mixed in with the rock, and a big area mulched in the backyard. I bought 20 bags of mulch last weekend to re-mulch the backyard, and it's a pain in the ass.

And yeah, lots of plants = no go. According to our neighbors a few years back when the front yard was in good shape the lady renting the house was out there every night weeding, fertilizing, watering, etc. I just don't have the time or desire to do that.

 

That is a pretty low upkeep layout. Looks so much better it is almost like a different house.

I always like to plant fruit trees. I have three different peach trees now, so in a few years will have peaches all summer long, and a second cherry tree

 

Nice, any idea how much they charged for the rocks? I've got an area on the side of my house I need to cover up so my neighbor's cats stop crapping there

 

On the quote it was included as a bundle with several items including removing old rock, adding weed barrier, labor for moving in the new rock, removing some bushes and weeding, so I can't really give you just the cost for the stone. But for all those things it was $1200 for everything to the left of the driveway and $550 for the right of the driveway.