[ahartzell]

Hey everyone, I'm wanting to change up a few things and I'm not sure the best way. First, my front yard has a single tree that's surrounded by poured concrete edging. Just in front of that are 2 electrical boxes. Near the boxes, the grass is awful, and even has some DEEP holes (like almost a foot). The builder put those nasty tall grass plants in front to hide the boxes. Well as I said the lawn is gross, the plants aren't healthy, the landscaper last year cut them down and they haven't recovered well. Anyway, how do you guys landscape around those boxes? I want to surround the whole area with edging and mulch it, but it's so close to tree I might end up landscaping like 15% of the front yard :lol:

Not the best pics (I always try to cut out the eyesores) - you can see them on the right hand side.





Second thing is the AC units on the side of my house. I'd like to get something nicer around those. Thinking of eding/mulching from house out about 3ft into lawn which will include the units?

Almost like this (not my house obviously) - just so I don't have to mow right around them and it looks nicer.

 

[Colonel K0rn]

I plan on doing something similar with my AC unit and the South side of my house similar to what you've got in your second picture, accented with some flowering plants, and maybe a few flowering bushes. I'm pretty much done with hedges.

For the front yard, it looks like you've got the soil level raised up by the concrete ring, whether its by the sandings that you've done, or if it's just the turf. I'm not a fan of having a lot of dirt that high up on the trunk of the tree for fear of having a root girdle the tree, then hasten the death of the tree. I'd remove the concrete curbing, and create a mulch bed that would encompass the power boxes. I'd shape it like a kidney bean.

 

[ahartzell]

Better pics - I'm wanting to do what @Colonel K0rn suggested in the front near tree and electrical boxes. I'm just afraid that's going to be A LOT of landscaped area to grass area.

 

[Colonel K0rn]

To be honest, it's going to be easier to take care of, and be more aesthetically pleasing. You won't have to manually cut it with a LB or trimmer, and you can get rid of the eyesore grasses. Plus, if they do any maintenance on the boxes and digging, you won't be worried about watching the turf heal for months on end.

My 1337 Paint skills might give you some ideas. I have imagination, and I would use rubber mulch

 

[Jconnelly6b]

I would also turn that entire area into a planting bed. Much easier to maintain as you don't have to mow around all those things.

Some flowering bulbs, an evergreen tidy shrub or 2, and maybe some small grasses (liriope comes to mind) in a line like CK has would be very nice. Make sure to get a thick layer of mulch down so you don't have to water continuously in the summer.

 

[davidwilson]

Your idea of landscaping is much great. For the perfection, I would advise to you have a consultation with the professionals.