From Mess to Yes!

For the past week or so I've been working on putting together a flower bed for the space next to my front door (in between rain storms). The previous owner planted a row of rosemary that was growing out of control.  Here is a before picture:

The rosemary had gotten huge and was about to take over my hibiscus.  Weeds also started growing behind the rosemary.

I knew it was time to do something so I hired the guy from my mowing service to to take a chainsaw to the rosemary.  I wanted the rosemary relocated to the back yard but he said it might die if it was pulled.  I told him just to cut it enough to give me enough room for a flower bed.   

He did and he even put down a couple bags of potting soil that he had brought with him.  

It was already looking a little better.

I threw out the old garden lights, picked up some flowers, a bird bath, and mulch and got to work.

Here is one end of the flower bed.

...and the other side. I decided the bird bath was too big for the space and moved it to the lower level.

 Then at walmart, I came across this little beauty:

I love the size and the rose details but was not partial to the concrete look so I picked up some spray paint:

 

Eventually I will go back and hand paint the roses to add some color, but right now I have way too many other paint projects to work on.

 Here's what it looked like after the spray paint:

Here it is all done and in the flower bed. 

This is a before and after.  It doesn't show the updated bird bath so I'll have to take another picture tomorrow.

Overall I'm happy with the transformation.  I will probably try to relocate what's left of the rosemary to the back yard so that it no longer blocks the new flower bed.  This one was definitely a labor of love but I am relieved that I finally did it.