Advice from the Owner

My new garden is so much more interesting than the Kentucky bluegrass lawn I replaced. I enjoy sitting on my glider rocker and checking on each of the 45 plants now abiding in my front lawn. The tip I have to offer is to use "flags" (I recycled the ones used to mark my utilities) and number them to match the plant by number map that came with the Garden In A Box kits. I put the flags in each hole I dug so I would know what to plant. Can't wait till next spring to see what happens!

Advice from the Owner

First I eliminated approximately 100 square feet of lawn area. The current area was hard to grow grass. I prefer to use landscape fabric on these types of projects. The fabric helps eliminate weeds and tend to pop up next to the plants making them easier to see and remove. I like to use landscape mulch over the fabric to retain moisture and give the plants a more natural setting. I tend to use larger rocks in the beds and usually accent the area with stones. I was able to repurpose stones from my yard for this effort. The garden gas room for expansion in the future on either side. I should have purchased additional plant with the Colorado Oasis kit. Looking forward to beautiful flowers and less yard maintenance.

Advice from the Owner

The back yard was actually the larger of the two projects I committed to. It is over 400 sq. ft. and is still a work in progress. We dug out the additional square footage from a garden I had created years before and added not only the plants I received from Resource Central but 225 plugs of Dog Tuff Grass I bought from High Country Gardens. Some things didn't make it, spurge tried to takeover the grasses, but I persevered and pulled out the weeds. The Tuff Grass is filling in nicely. I think I will see a great change next year in this area. I am continuing to take out the grass in between the two gardens and will put a red stone path, mulch, and thyme plants for a sea of color in the springtime! If I had anything to do over, I would prep the ground a little more to keep out all of the weeds. I am using a gluten corn weedkiller to solve some of the spurge problems!

Advice from the Owner

Every year our grass gets less and less plush due to drought conditions and not wanting to water more. Replacing about 200 sq. ft. of garden in the front requires less water and looks so much better. We lost a few of the plants up front due to rabbits and squirrels, but overall these plants should mature into something beautiful by next year. We are putting in bulbs this fall for a pop of color and want to see what comes up next year! The hardest work is the preparation time, chopping out the grass, tilling the soil, soil replacement , as well as mulching the entire area (we bought them by the bag!) I may hire some help if I take out more soil next year!

Advice from the Owner

I love that an oddly shaped, weedy and bramble filled section of yard has been transformed! We live in the back of a cul de sac and the northwest corner of our yard has always been an eyesore. Every spring I would hopefully begin digging out the thorny blackberry bush, hundreds of dandelions and other weeds and would water the remaining ‘lawn’. I’d give up every July or August but not before I had used too much water and gotten very little.

I planted two garden in a box sets for sun, currents, a not thorny blackberry, Josta berry, Russian Hawthorne, and three Weeping White spruce trees. The far back corner is a pen for composting fall leaves. We had someone build a handsome flagstone path to define the garden spot and now it’s an always changing place of beauty.

I had to plant in a hurry because It was super wet in 2021–had to get the plants in the ground fast, in between the wet and soupy mud and coming broiling sun. Unfortunately, the boxes I got didn’t have a map for a triangular garden layout so I plunked plants in the ground. I had to move some really tall ones this spring. Some others are too close to bigger plants and are not as big and vibrant as they should be.

I’m haven’t quite figured out the watering system—am hand watering and using the sprinklers that I used for the lawn at the moment. I would like to get that piece figured out. Other than those two things I wouldn’t change anything!

Advice from the Owner

Love not worrying about watering grass every day through the summer and watching the bees and butterflies enjoy the front yard as much as we love coming home to the beautiful flowers every day. Flowers are blooming from early spring through late fall and the front yard has never looked better.

Advice from the Owner

The bees have already found our new Butterfly Bounty Garden In A Box from Resource Central. We added 2.5 tons of Colorado Pink gravel from Pioneer Sand as a border (and to make the garden space a bit smaller) and built our own drip system using the Rainbird 1800 retrofit kit. Works like a charm! Can't wait to see what it looks like in years two and three!