My latest project.

The front of my house was driving me nuts.  More specifically, the lack of grass, the abundance of sand and the overall dead-looking area in front of the stairs.  When something bothers me, I tend to get a little OCD about it.  I really do obsess and work on fixing it until it is done.  Sometimes that means I am working on a project for several hours, or, like in this case, days.  Yes, I do sleep, but only enough to get the energy needed for the next spurt.  I know, I'm a little nutty.  I'm okay with that. 

So, this is what the house looked like before.

Did I say we have sand?  Just look at it.  Dead-looking and empty.  No curb appeal what-so-ever.  Not that we have a curb, or that I want it to be appealing to others.  No. I just want to drive up to my house to a beautiful entry. Sit on my porch and not be irritated by my sandbox yard.  Have something I enjoy looking at.  

So, I remembered that there was a large pile of left over slate from the previous owner. Originally, I thought of making stepping stones out of the slate.  Most of it was broken in random pieces and I thought I would put them in concrete molds and place them around the property.  Well, then I thought I could make a walkway in front of the stairs with them.  So, that is what I did.   

I placed the slate down in different patterns and widths until I came up with one I like.  It reminded me of making a mosaic.  I love working with stained glass and making mosaics so this seemed more like an art project than a landscaping project.  The kids helped until they got bored, which was pretty fast.

I added river rock around the slate and filled in the cracks with, yes, more sand.  But, for a good reason.  The sand holds the slate and rock in place so we don't kick it around everywhere.  I also added two, 2 foot by 50 foot flower beds on either side spanning the length of the path.

I added in some heavily-scented gardenias and some random flowers I can not remember the name of.  They are hardy and do well in sand/clay.  I am also going to add in some rosemary and herbs.  My goal is to have a wonderfully-smelling walkway that is also pleasing to the eye. I am going to plant a few more flowers, then mulch with pine straw.   Also, I am going to till, and re-seed the front yard to try and get some grass growing.  I am thinking of planting alfalfa.  It grows well in the sandy soil and it it really thick and pretty.   

What do you think so far?

I planted some foxgloves right in the middle.  We had a bad storm yesterday, so I had to prop the flower stems back up to help them recover.  I have never seen foxgloves this big.  The stems are almost 3ft tall!