What a Difference Some Bark Makes

We’re back to rain and cooler skies around here this week. Last week though we had a little break with a number of warm sunny days. While the sun was still out Chris and I worked outside laying bark . It took about 6 yards in total and we probably could have used more but we’ll see how it goes.

Before we were actually able to lay any of the bark we did have to do quite a bit of weed pulling and cleaning up to do. We started with the beds in the front of the house which were overrun with weeds and flowers.

It’s amazing how many weeds came up over the winter as well as how the pansies spread like crazy. I didn’t even plant any in this bed last year.

The pansies that I planted in this bed last year bloomed out a lot this spring and really crowded each other.

After a weekend, some evenings and about 4 loads of bark in our truck we finally got the weeds pulled and all the bark laid in the front of the house. It really is amazing how much better the front yard looks now. This much bark may not be the cheapest upgrade but it does make the yard look so much better. I’d say that’s some pretty great bang for your buck.

It looks even better walking up the driveway with the bark covering the former rough rocky edge of the driveway.

Up closer to the house the flower beds already look so much better than last year and we haven’t even planted anything new yet.

While we were pulling weeds we did move around some of the pansies we had just to spread them out a little.

Hopefully one day this hydrangea  in the center will get really large and fill in a lot of this flower bed. Until then it seems like the pansies are trying to take on that challenge.

Back up on the front porch here is the new view of the yard.

There wasn’t anything to work around in the back except for one fushia bush we moved there this year. Chris did all the work back here. Mostly pulling up a lot of moss and weeds and then he put down the layer of bark.

He did the same thing on the other side of the back of the house.

From farther back the beds look a lot better just having the bark in them even though there’s nothing planted in them.

Continuing around the corner Chris finished out the bark by putting some along the house.

That leads back to the front of the house were you can see the flower beds from a little different angle along with the small bed along the house.

Here’s one last shot of the hillside in front of our house covered in bark.

It was quite a bit of work but here’s hoping it keeps most of the weeds at bay this summer. If nothing else it looks so much better than when we moved in. If you didn’t see the comparison in the last post check this out. We were pretty surprised by the change.

Anyone else out laying bark this spring?