Before and After (Or How Long Landscaping Really Takes)

I think there's a desire--no doubt encouraged by HGTV shows--to have a complete landscape transformation in hours or days. This is possible, with a lot of money, but for the rest of us, redoing a landscape takes time and patience. When we moved into our house 2.5 years ago, the landscape looked like this:Yes, completely empty. We hired my brother-in-law, who's a landscaper to help us create garden spaces in the front and back yard. The most expensive part was the labor, including sod removal, bark mulch and soil application and rock placement. Here's the yard right after we put in all of the plants.



And this year:


Since we bought small plants (1 gallon or less) t's taken a while for them plants to fill out and not all of them enjoy the full direct sun during the summer. But overall, I think the front yard looks lush but not overgrown.