I like big rocks

I have been struggling with an area of my yard since I moved in here.

There is a raised area between the house and garage 

that transitions the levels from driveway up to back yard.

A couple of years ago, nephew-in-law Mark helped me fix part of this area by putting in some stone pavers and stairs.  But the raised area, which had a layer of small rock was mostly weeds.

Today, I had a landscaper come and fix my problem, and am I every happy!

BEFORE

I was not winning the war on weeds

There were hostas, but not thriving hostas.

The rock along the steps didn't really have an end.

So, the first job was to shovel out the old.

The landscape cloth and some rocks to hold it down.

Now a nice border of rocks at the back edge of this area which will work great for the lawn guys and a weed whip.

These two big rocks were already there.

Now new river rock

Nice border and new rock

Nice 

Now a few more boulders were added

Now I added a few colorful pots.

Nice and tidy now.

It is so clean and such a better first impression of my digs.

The after and before make me very happy.

Dad and Ev and I call this the 'red room' and Dad really enjoys sitting here to look at the back yard and relax.

Originally I had thought I would have nephew in law Mark help me rake the rock off this area and then I would put down bark.   I had contacted http://www.northwoodstransplanting.com/default.html about planting some trees for me, and when Caleb came to give me an estimate, I asked him about doing the cleanup on this area.  He encouraged me to stick with rock because of the easy clean up with a leaf blower.  Once I started thinking about it, I realized that if I pulled all the plants out of this area (except the high bush cranberry), I could eliminate the weeds and keep it that way very easily.
So, now I will have Mark help me with another project as this one is done done done.
Oh year, 4 trees will be planted later in the fall, I'm very excited about that as the trees will be 12 footers and the one in the back yard will be a blue spruce.
Of course I'll post pictures of that change here as well.