Conquering the Weeds

You've heard me talk about it before. Our side yard is just a pit of weeds that we try to ignore and very seldom venture towards. I have weeded it a few times before but it always ends up looking like this again. 

Yeah....it's pretty bad. Everything to the right of those rocks are weeds. Our neighbors had a really smart, low maintenance solution for it. They put gravel down all around it. Not my favorite look but you can't see it from the front of the house and in the end, low maintenance won out over looks!

I look a selfie with our most impressive weed. I'm standing at full height in this picture....I told you, impressive.

While I was at it I decided that I also needed to get the rest of the yard under control as well. My Dad trimmed this tree for us one time. That's the only time it's ever been trimmed while we've lived here so it's gone a little wild. 

These are all a little wild and overgrown.

And the Dr. Seuss tree is all over those rose bushes!

I should have picked my battles but instead I did a full weeding, then trimmed everything, and then still had to made the gravel bed around the HVAC system. I should have done one project at a time because I am feeling it today! My back and hamstrings are so sore!

I filled 5 of those bags up with weeds.

And that is 25 bags of pea gravel, about 40 pounds each, that I had to transport from the garage to the side yard. I think this is why my hamstrings are killing me today.

We have these large flat rocks that had to go so I could edge this whole area in. I still have them and I'm hoping they can turn into a little spot for under our trash cans.

Crosby helped by digging up the weeds and chilling in the shade. EXCEPT for that time the UPS truck turned onto our street and I realized a second too late. Next thing I know Crosby is in the culdesac chasing the UPS truck! Not a good moment for the Cros.

I got this metal edging from Lowes to help corral the rocks. They are supposed to be easy to work with with built in stakes that just snap off. I tried so hard to get those stakes snapped off and could not do it. In the end I had to trench the entire edge so that the edging would stay in place without stakes..

Then I put down weed paper because I will do anything to never have to weed this area again!

Ok, ready for the afters? This took me from 9 AM to almost 5 PM straight. I took two breaks to eat a PB&J and I had to make a Lowes run but that's it! It was an exhausting day but worth it!

 
These next two are anti-climactic but in person it is a lot better!

And the beast! Those flat stones on the left are what will hopefully go under the trash cans, I just ran out of energy. And we'll have to try to grow grass in that area because it's down to dirt. Overall though, I think it came out pretty well. Definitely much cleaner and *fingers crossed* lower maintenance!