Front Yard watersmart Landscape makeover project

Front Yard Watersmart landscape Makeover project:

This is front yard of my house before I decide to get ride of the lawn. I do not want to continue to water my lawn while water became scarce! I am not sure how am going to redo the landscape without using a lot water while maintaning the curb appeal.

Luckily I found the Landscape makeover program at San Diego that helped me to archieve my goal. This class had empowered homeowners like myself with the skills and knowledge necessary to convert a turf area into a WaterSmart landscape. I learned as much as i can from sheeting mulching method to selecting drought resistant plants etc..

I know what I get into and how much time and hard work in order for me to convert my front yard into a watersmart landscape. I was considering hiring a contractor but decided to tackle this project myself. I have a constraint budget and I also want to see if i can do it myself and within the budget. It was one of the hardest thing I ever done! I don't give up very easily but in the middle of the project, that thought did cross my mind. At the end my persistent won and I finished my project on time and within the budget. Ask me if i want to do it again? The answer is "no" :-). but I felt really good that I accomplished what I set out to do.

Full-Body Workout:

I found this picture from San Diego Garden Group. This is so true! I used every single tools in this photo and I really felt that I am getting much stronger too. On top of that, I save some money by doing myself :-). It was quite a challenge project but I did it myself.

Below is the watersmart landscape makeover plan with the help of my designer on the last day of the class. She was fantastic helping me from visual concept to reality.

Start digging! It took me more than a day to carve out the walkway and removed roots, rocks!

Stones and Rocks arrived! I was concerned about my estimated time that I want to finish all these palettes of sand, gravel & rocks in four days!

5 boulders costed me $110 but i need to rent the crane truck ($190) to place these boulders to the right location for me. I am not sure if i can place these boulders myself and It will take me the whole day! So the cost of renting the crane was well worth it.

Gravel and sand compressed down before laying flagstone walkway.

Laying flagstone took time. It is like a puzzle that you need to arrange the flagstone to have a natural look. I know it will take a lot out of my time and if i solely focused on making the walkway, I will fall behind my schedule and would not be able to finish in 4 days. I enlisted my younger brother and he was willing to help to lay the flagstone.

Capture rainwater by building swales! Finished laying walkway, swales, boulders and river rocks in four days. Next tasks are laying cardboards, compost, plants and mulch.

6 cubic yards of compost to cover front yard. I have been collecting a lot of cardboards for the past few months. I was concerned but I had just about enough cover the entire front yard!

The technique called "sheet mulching": is a layered mulch system that nurtures the soil and replaces existing lawns or other vegetation, eliminating the need to remove unwanted plant material. The first layer is a biodegradable weed barrier—usually cardboard or multiple layers of newspaper—placed directly on the ground.

Plants arrived on December 26th, 2018 (Day after Christmas): I need to dig a total of 77 holes for all my 1, 5 and 15 gallons. I know it will take couple days but after awhile i got into the route and be patient and digging one hole at a time until i get all done. Luckily i did encounter a lot rocks underneath of compost/cardboard etc...

Converted the existing irrigation systems into drip systems:

Instead of buying spray-to-drip retrofit kit rainbird 1800 series to convert at the sprinkler head, I think it will cost me more money in the long run. I decided to buy 4 x Rain Bird PRF07530S Drip Irrigation In-Line 30 PSI Pressure Regulating "Y" Filter, 3/4" Male Pipe Thread and installed at the low out flow with filtering buil-in. I then capped the sprinkler heads or use 1/2 tubing attaching to the riser where ever i need.