front yard: before and after

Our front yard (like the rest of the house) was a mess when we moved in: pretty much no grass, huge overgrown trees, a gold storm door, and in need of lots of tlc.

First, we had the big, dying pine trees cut down:

Then, we dug up all of the dead grass, and then tried to level the dirt out as much as possible. (When I say we, I mean my husband. )
We also had sprinklers installed.

We planted Pennington (low water, sun-shade) fescue grass seed, and in a few weeks we had a lawn. We have also used some sod in the backyard that hasn't done as well. I would choose seed over sod any day~it's much less expensive as well. This is a year later after~he uses Scott fertiler 4-5 times a year and we water deeply 2 times a week.
For our front area, we just put down some heavy duty landscape fabric to keep weeds out $30
river rock $50
edged it with a bag of color stay mulch $4
added two trees from Walmart $9 X 2 = $18
a bush in the middle $5
two yellow lantana bushes $6 X 2 = $12
vinca flowers along the edge: $10 total (more on these here)
Total: $129
It's pretty much maintenance free~when we had the sprinklers installed, we had a drip put in this area.
The house already had this lovely aggregate border, but you could never really notice it with the big pine trees and dirt:

I was worried with my black thumb that my vincas wouldn't make it, but they held up beautifully in the Texas heat/wind/storms.

Tip of the day: This is a great time of year to take a look at what plants and flowers worked well through the summer in yards around your town. If it's still thriving in August/September, take note of it for when you plan your landscapes and gardens next spring. Do a drive by and take pictures (if you're brave!) or if they are outside, ask them about what they've done.

I'm excited for next week; we're going to talk about gifts we can make or makeover, start thinking about, or be on the lookout for now amidst our thrifting so things aren't so crazy come November and December. Each day I'll put a mr. linky up so you can link up if you've got some great ideas for the fabulous frugal gifts we're talking about that day.
On Friday, you can share any frugal gift idea your heart desires to share with us :)

Until then~have a great weekend!