livin' on the edge: landscape edging....

one thing I have learned about myself since owning a home is that I like to putter in the yard. I am constantly weeding, cutting back my plants, mulching and making sure everything looks nice. With a lot of the inside projects tackled for now, this spring, I have a few things on my yard to-do list that I want to accomplish. Edging some trees on our tree-lawn was the first thing I attempted from that list.

We live in a neighborhood where the homeowners association takes care of the general landscaping and maintenance, but the tree-lawn on your property is your responsibility. They don't dictate that you do anything to your trees, but we had two that looked so sad just plain. 

Snoozapalooza. 

So I grabbed a can of spray paint and marked where I wanted to edge. Most of our neighbors have landscaped their trees in a circle design, so I decided to follow their lead to keep everything uniform. 

Then, I just started edging. I seriously underestimated this undertaking. The first tree was pretty easy, the ground was soft and there weren't many roots near the surface. But the second tree was much harder. There was thick grass, a few roots and much harder soil. Edging wasn't bad but removing the "innards" was brutal. Once I edged everything, I went into the inner part of the circle at a more horizontal angle, trying to basically skim the top layer off and leave as much dirt as I could.

At least that was my plan. The project quickly dissolved into me stabbing at the ground and pulling out large chunks of grass and dirt with my hands. Good times.

But alas, it was ready for mulch. I used roughly a bag and a half per tree because I wanted the mulch mounds to be pretty high since dogs and kids will be traipsing all over them.

It definitely was a labor-intensive project, but the result is well worth it. Now on to sprucing up the mailbox landscaping, which entails more edging.... oy.