My wife and I bought our home in far north Dallas/Richardson in the spring of 2012. These are the only two pictures I have from the MLS listing. They make the yard look much nicer than it was, and they also steered
clear of documenting the disaster that was the side of the house. Unfortunately all the pictures of that side yard have been lost.





Note in the second picture the large oak tree located between my house and my neighbor. Due to the slope between our houses and that tree raising the ground level, my side yard became a pool every time we got a decent amount of rain. That in turn was messing with the foundation and the decision to cut the tree down was made in
early 2013.



I also decided to take the two wing walls out. Roots from the oak tree damaged this wall so it had to go. I am a fan of symmetry so the other one was taken out as well (not pictured).



Here's a few pictures with everything ripped out.











Following that I decided to replace the front steps leading up to the porch because they weren't the correct height/depth ratio and it was hard for children to get to the front door.

Before:


After:


In the fall of 2013 I had a crew of friends and my father in law help me build the flower beds that surround the house. I also added some sprinkler heads to the existing irrigation as well as replaced the old valves to each station of the sprinkler system.







I waited for the spring of 2014 to plant the first round of shrubs and roses. I went with a mix of Indian Hawthornes, Dwarf Yaupon Hollies, Knockout Roses, Japanese Yews, and a few Crepe Myrtles. In the last picture you can see the decomposedgranite path we installed right after we built the flower bed walls. Underneath the path is a French drain, all planned on helping drainage. The downspouts are tied into the French drain under the path. It works great and I no longer have any standing water in that area. I'll probably make another post for that part of the yard when I finish that area. It's still a work in progress.







I took a few months off (see: football season) to wait for the weather to warm back up before I put the finishing touches on the front yard. After the last freeze I re-sodded the bare areas located in various spots
of the front yard. The main spot you could see in the last picture in the previous set.







The sod is holding up great and starting to blend in nicely. Now all that remained was the front two flower beds. For the main bed around the large red oak I went with large mondo grass. My hope is that it eventually spreads and completely covers the entire bed, leaving a large dark green blanket around the tree. For the other bed I planted 4 hydrangeas and the plan is to maybe add one or two more depending on how much room is left. I also purchased a beautiful Japanese Maple for the empty spot next to the valves.







The finishing touches came in the form of two planters on the front steps and some inpatients surrounding the mondo grass. In the other front bed I planted some begonias and sweet potato vines in March and they are doing extremely well. In the third picture you can see the stone path I added a year ago.











Thanks for making it all the way through! I'm glad this project is done for now. I want to eventually add landscape lighting but that can wait for now. The next project is the backyard. It's already under
construction but it might take me another year to fully complete.

people like you make people like me feel very lazy