A New Front Border

When we moved into the house, the front shrubbery had no border at all. A few years ago, in an effort to add some visual interest, I added a simple border with some paver stones that I found at Lowe's for 52 cents a piece.

 It served its purpose, but lacked substance and was very difficult to mow around.

So when I saw this pin on Pinterest, I knew I wanted to do something to beef it up and solve the having to trim around it problem. The same pavers I had used before happened to be on sale this weekend for 33 cents, so I got all over that.

 

I quickly discovered that digging up grass is a lot harder than I imagined it would be, but I broke up the task by doing a short trench, followed by the much more enjoyable task of laying some pavers. It was probably less efficient to do it this way, but it kept me from getting worn out with digging. Once I got a trench dug, I smoothed out the dirt and broke up any big chunks, then put down landscape fabric, followed by some regular old sand. We happened to have 4 bags of it that spent all winter in the back of my truck for traction, so I used that.

At first, I skipped the sand step, but realized that was a mistake. It helps tremendously in levelling all the pavers. This is where you can imagine me struggling to drag a wet 70 pound bag of sand around the house.

I'm altering the course of our new border. You can see above the old border's path in the background, along with the new one in front. The decision was made mostly from an ease of mowing standpoint, as it was always difficult to get the riding mower around the lilac bush.

That's as far as I got today, since, despite the weather forecast calling for a 0% chance of rain, I kept getting soaked by it.

 

Once the border is finished, I'll dig up the grass in the newly incorporated flower bed area and mulch it. I hope to finish things up on Saturday and have some finished project pictures!