Adding some curb appeal

Yea its not pretty.

When my mom came down for a visit last week, she just couldnt resist planting me some flowers.
we went to WalMart and picked up a few plants, dirt, flower pots, and red mulch, since thats whats around the bushes already. (way over grown lol)

We got all of these on clearence, except the ivy, because they were pretty scraggly. You can see on the right all the plants, (and my mom trimming down the scraggly flowers.)
Youll need a tall plant towards the back for hight, flowers for color, and ivy that will grow and spill down the sides.

fill the pot half way with dirt.

Cut off damaged, dying leaves. And for flowers be sure to cut off the blooms.

Hold the base of the plant down by the dirt, turn up side down and pull gently.

These were pretty root bound, which is why they were so cheap. Just take your fingers and break them up.

Set it towards the back. the flowers to the front, and the ivy on both sides. Fill in with dirt, top with mulch.

for the flower beds, put down 3-4 sheets thick of news paper, over lapping the edges a couple inches.

If you are planting directly in the beds be sure to only use black and white ink print newpaper, the colored ink will kill the flowers. Since I wasnt I used whatever. Place 2-3 inches thick of mulch over the whole newspaper, and water good. This keeps you from having to weed or remove grass from the flower bed before you start, and doubles as landscaping fabric. The ink kills the weeds, and the paper keeps them from coming back for quite a while, about the same as the fabric, and its free.

We bought these landscaping bricks for 1.98 to set the flower pots on. and here we go again with the before

 after :)

ooooo  ahhhh!! so much better. (it also decided to rain in the middle of this!)
(also i need to get some edging pavers...maybe one day lol and a wreath soon, and a little spray paint on my light & door bell)

and a week later!

and they doubled in size :)

Thanks mom!