A Compact Japanise Holly is an ornamental evergreen shrub that is lush and very beautiful! In fact, we fell so in love with them last week, we added six of them around our pool area. They look a lot like boxwoods and are wonderful either mixed in with other shrubs, used as a hedge, or even planted in a pot or container.
Which is the better choice when planting a new lawn – sod or seed? It can be a tough decision for some and a more obvious one for others. We’ve done both recently. We laid sod around our pool area because we wanted that space to be finished so we could enjoy it this summer. And we sewed grass seed on our side yard where we had to build up our yard to bring the pool in. Since this part of the yard was far from the pool, we were willing to wait for the grass to come up. To figure out what’s best for your situation, you need to look at the pros and cons of sod vs. seed.
We recently planted schip laurels around our pool area to create a hedge. The schip laurel is low-maintenance and it grows under a variety of different conditions. It’s a beautiful shrub and it was a breeze to plant once we decided where we wanted it to go. We are really loving the look and feel like they’ve made a great addition to our landscaping. Schip laurels are also known as skip laurels or schipka laurels.
If you don’t want to take the time to plant grass seed, your other option is to lay sod. We did this recently around our pool and it turned out even better than we hoped! Here are some instructions on how to lay sod so you can get that instant green lawn you’ve always dreamed of.
We recently laid solid stone steps connecting our new pool area to our existing sidewalk. At first glance, a project like this looks pretty simple. At least, that’s what we thought! That is until we tried to move one of the stones. These things weigh 450 lbs each, which made this project one of the most challenging things I’ve ever done. But it is doable! In this article, I’m going to show you how we did it and what you need to know going into a project like this.