True to form, I didn't take a proper "before" photo--but here is the area after we started, and I think it gives an idea of how ugly it was, and also the enormous task at hand.
The landscaping fabric underneath the rocks was so old, weeds thrived between the rocks; many of the rocks somehow slipped underneath the fabric, so when we pulled it up, there was a whole other layer of rocks to deal with. Also, after the all the changing seasons and rains and snows, the rocks were mostly dirty, making this space appear far from clean.
Ryan and I managed to clear the area of rocks in one afternoon--it was not easy, but we did it. The top layer of rocks, the ones most becoming, we hauled in one-bucket shifts to our shed, and laid them as a small border around it.
It might be hard to tell from these pictures, but the shed looks really cute with these rocks around it. It's a small border, so it will be easy to maintain.
Once just about all the rocks were removed, we found several stepping stones buried under the landscaping fabric.
I LOVE finding stuff like this--it's a boon to find things that we can use. We put one of these stones in front of the shed as a front step, and stored the rest inside the shed after hosing them all down. I'm sure we'll find a use for them at some point. They are nice, heavy, concrete stones--they could not have been cheap.
Rocks--be gone with you!
A couple of days later, I picked up some forsythia shrubs and catmint--all perennials--from Home Depot, trenched a new bed, and prepared to plant:
I did this on a Monday evening, and it was literally a race against the setting sun! The sun had already dipped below the horizon when I finished, with barely any light to admire my work.
A couple of days after that, we bought some sod, and hurrah!
I'm very proud of the transformation. It looks soooo much better.
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