Upcycled Patio [Pt. 2]

If you missed out on the initial stages of the patio makeover, take a moment to get up to speed. Then join us here...

As new homeowners it was fair to assess that we knew very little about anything. Since we were going to learn as we went anyway, why not create the patio of our imaginations, right? 

After searching on Google and Pinterest, I came across this inspiration and showed it to my husband. We agreed that not only did it look feasible for our skill set, but affordable too. So we started noodling the numbers to estimate what we should expect to spend with landscaping stones/seal/glue, mulch, edging materials, plants, and patio furniture.

During the winter months we spent our time perusing Menards for the retaining wall rock. The plan? Leave the concrete pad and build a rock wall on three sides with two openings to enter and exit the space. We settled on Catalina (tan) from Menards and ordered it in store. 

Fortunate for us, Menards delivered the 2,000+ pounds of rock. But they did so on the rainiest spring day Indiana could conjure and they had to park the semi in the street while using the fork lift to unload two pallets in our driveway rather than our back yard. Yours truly got to gopher them through the garage before stacking them in our workspace so as to save the yard while Andrew was traveling for work. I have to admit, I did take a lot of pride in that...

After my Herculean efforts I decided to plow forward with other parts of the project while Andrew was swooning over his precious wall. I've always thought my freehand lettering was relatively decent so why shouldn't I be able to "free shovel" the curvy edging for our landscaping? Here's my progress...

The trick is to really hollow out the space for your edging. It's easier to fill in a space that's too deep and adjust as you're laying it and fill in the dirt with your hand as you go. 

You've heard me say it before... one man's trash is another man's treasure. Sorry to be so cliche', but it's true. In true fashion I sold these pallets to other DIYers on our local garage sale site so that I could buy flowers for this new space!

While edging (see progress behind the bulbs) I got distracted by these plants that have continued to come up in the middle of our back yard. In my current shovel-obsessed state I left no bulb unearthed and replanted them in the new space where other landscaping and plants would reside.

UPDATE: they did return this year but have yet to produce a flower. :(

Meanwhile, in retaining rock wall land...

And then while I was on a bachelorette party to Las Vegas he and his brother finished this masterpiece! 

Now this next part intimidated me the most. Most that know my experience with plants know that I do not possess a green thumb. In fact, I'm pretty sure I've returned five or six succulents to Home Depot because I have no idea how to make them happy. 

During this process there are two humans, constantly wrangling the lines of thrifty and "this doesn't look thrifted" to come up with solid landscaping options. This first beauty (which we bought two of), was on super sale for $6. It's an Azalea which I am happy to report DID survive through the winter.

Quick rabbit hole.. My husband is still driving his "truck" from high school and their love runs deep. We can debate the term "truck" on another blog post, but I often entice him to prove truck-like attributes. This ended with him severely overloading the cab and bed with more plants than I could possibly kill in one afternoon and gave me one of my favorite homeowner memories.

Those five precious arbor vitae that you see in the back were planted that afternoon. Yes, they too are still alive and well (believe it or not)! You can see my edging work below too - before we plucked the grass and mulched.

Slow but sure, it's come along!

I hate mulch. I think fresh mulch smells like dog poop and I hate putting it all around my house so that when outside all I can think is that someone is slacking on the poop scooping. None the less, Andrew insisted we get mulch, so we visited Edgewood Feed and Seed and settled on the deep brown option from their sample box. Which yes, is even further reminiscent of the poop simile.

Mulching isn't anything to write home about - especially the first time you cover all of the space you want to much. Three or four yards later (I forget honestly), after unloading it in the blazing sun and pouring down rain I was just happy to be done. 

When we did finish mulching, Andrew laid grass seed along the edging to fill in the areas we'd disrupted during our project. It grew very well and was filled in before the end of the season.

I even did edged the side bed too. After we bought three burning bushes I learned that they're not indigenous to Indiana. Unfortunately for me I was face-to-face with a forester and had to appear revolted when she told me that her sister had tried to put the horrible plants in her landscaping. I guess the bonus is that they haven't technically turned red and proven to us that they're truly burning bushes so that makes me feel less guilty. :|

Projects like these don't really end in your back yard. Before you know it the front yard looks like garbage against the remnants that peek through in the back. Which led to this...

Then this...

And now... do you remember what we started with?

Here's the transformation!

When it was all said and done it came together really nicely. We've already made additional improvements since this was taken late last summer, but what a transformation!

Side note, continue reading to learn about our patio set and how I stained it.

Thanks for stopping by the Humble Hammock! What questions did you have from this project?