The Wood Between the Worlds

Before:

OK-admittedly, our front yard 'meadow' turned into a complete jungle of weeds and various lovely grasses and flowers. That's what a meadow is supposed to look like, right? Well...we were getting the vibe from the neighborhood HOA that this look was not appreciated by the neighborhood. So we ripped out the 'meadow' and laboriously lay out landscape fabric and 7 cubic yards of that good smelling Oregon bark dust (mmm...smell the fresh hemlock).

The labor (of love):

Some of the plants I love:

The planters that I put together for our porch:

After:

I'll admit that I don't like it as much, although it will be much easier to control the weeds. We still need to add a row of shrubs and possibly a tree along that white vinyl fence on the left. We are also going to build a nice flower box to fill with dahlias and vining vegetables. That will fill the huge random (and now very brown) space on the left of the porch. The final touch will be a fence to separate our front yard from our neighbor's (weedy) backyard. Then the front yard will be finished! I am so glad we did this before summer's arrival. And now onto the weed problem in the backyard....