Beginner Gardening: Before and After shots, anyone?, 1 by tinabeana

tinabeana wrote:
Hi again, TC! I thought of you this evening: I saw 2 huge piles of bricks downtown coming back from dinner. No rocks, though =(

Here's my first before and after. This is one of the oak trees on my property and part of our patio. Though you could never tell it from the before picture, the patio was there the whole time! It had been covered in so many years worth of decaying leaves that it had reverted back to forest floor (even though I live in the city). It's 20x20 made up of 2x2 concrete tiles, and I'm in the process of convincing my DH to try growing a fragrant ground cover between the tiles.

See where all the downed limbs were piled around the base of the tree? Underneath them, liarope grass was growing in the leaves: I had to roll sections of it up like carpet. We've got the stuff everywhere, so this went straight to the curb (cause if I'd compost it, it'll grow in the compost!). Needless to say the wayward privet was also taken out.

The entire base area of the tree is hard clay and tree roots, so to humor my back and hubby's love of rocks I put down several bags of red lava rock. I'm not sold on the decorative fencing, but it's what I had on hand.

The holly bush to the left of the tree was damaged by fallen limbs. I'm trimming dead and misshapen branches off of it, slow b/c I don't want to traumatize it. It's turning into kind of a bonzai shape, which makes me strangely happy.