Transformation Tuesday: Overgrown Mugo Pine

This area of the yard had an overgrown mugo pine that left the area feeling crowded and unwelcoming. Since you can't really cut or shape these shrubs without them looking horrendous, our only option was to completely remove the plant due to its size.

The first step was to cut back the limbs as close to the main trunk as possible. This would allow us to not only remove a large portion of the shrub but give us access to the main root system so we could remove the pine. After lots of trenching with picks and digging with shovels, we finally popped out the shrub! Due to its large size, it needed to be placed in a wheelbarrow in order to take it to the trailer for disposal.

Once the plant was removed, we needed to rake out the debris and fill in the area with some dirt to allow us to level out the area. Now we could see what we were working with. The area already had beautiful landscape lights, well-done hardscaping, and a water feature, but a few things were missing: gravel, a redone dry river bed, and plants.

The first step to spruce up the area was to add some plants: yarrows, coral bells, blue oat grass, and Karl Foresters were chosen. Once the plants were in it was time for the gravel and the weed barrier. The dry riverbed was next; we pulled up the existing rock, reshaped the bed, and brought in additional rock to fill in the bare spots. We quickly ran the blower over the area to remove some of the dust, then wet the area down to wash down the rest of the dust.

This transformation was complete! The client was amazed at how this once-neglected area quickly became a centerpiece for entertaining guests. Keep an eye out for next week's post to see how the rest of the yard comes out.