One of our favorite things to do as Those Plant Ladies is getting together with our all-female installation teams. Our crew consists of our paid industry experts and amazing volunteers. This is when the rubber meets the road and so much education happens! These projects provide us with amazing opportunities for hands-on learning where our TPL Crew can learn skills and techniques to work in their own yards! (Want to be part of our Crew? Go here.)
“Ray wanted to treat his devoted wife with the yard of her dreams – full of colorful blooms…”
Another sunny fall day, another chance to get together with our TPL crew and bring someone’s landscape dreams to life! This was especially true for the adorable family who we served for this project. This fun and colorful design from Fawn Renae Designs was a gift to Penny from her husband, Ray. Ray has been battling with some health issues and Penny is right by his side every step of the way. Ray wanted to treat his devoted wife with the yard of her dreams – full of colorful blooms to see from every window of the house. As always, Fawn Renae Designs produced a landscape that checked every box by selecting flowering trees, shrubs, and perennials that are suited for the climate and low maintenance.
This family was sweet enough to even provide lunch for our TPL crew! Hot dogs, hamburgers, chips, potato salad, and more. We could not ask for better clients than this pair. They believe in our mission whole-heartedly and were incredible to work for throughout the entire process. We are so, so grateful that they’re part of our TPL family.
We started the installation by removing the small stone mulching that was in the existing flower beds. This was a lot of work! We hate to get rid of perfectly good materials so we did lots of shoveling and wheelbarrowing to move this material to a different part of the yard where it could continue to be useful!
Beneath the stone, there was landscape fabric. You can see in some images just how dirt and material had built up on top of this fabric. This is the main reason we don’t use fabric when we do our installations. It might be effective for a year or two but mulch and other material begins to break down on top of the fabric, creating plenty of new soil for weeds to grow in. We removed the existing landscape fabric completely.
Before we got started with the planting, we transplanted a few plants to other parts of the yard to make room for new the design. With everything old cleared out the way, we got to work bringing the design to life! With the landscape designer Fawn on-site, we lay out the entire design before we get started and Fawn gives her stamp of approval before we do any digging. We mark out our planting holes with spray paint and get to working with our auger and shovels!
When it comes to planting, we love teaching our ladies all the best tips and tricks! Proper planting is so important to the long-term success of plants so we take plenty of time to make sure everyone gets it just right. This includes amending this nasty red clay we had with some topsoil, digging large planting holes, breaking up the root balls, and getting the planting depth just right. Every time we install with new crew members, they always learn something new in this process!
Finally, our finishing touches. If our new landscape beds aren’t going to be surrounded by hardscape, we always use a bed trencher to get nice, clean separation between the lawn and the new bed. This is one of our favorite pieces of equipment and is a must-have on almost every installation we do. We added the container to the front porch. And, of course, mulch. We chose black-dyed mulch for this project. So many benefits to adding mulch – we’ve even made a whole blog post just on that topic. Every installation ends with a walk-through from Fawn with the client to make sure they feel confident in caring for their investment.
We are so proud of the women that came out to work this installation project. Teaching women through hands-on learning brings our mission to inspire, educate, and empower women to get their hands dirty to life! Our crew members come from all walks of life and all experience levels but everyone leaves with more knowledge than they came with and a community of like-minded women who will support them along the way – wherever their plant lady heart desires!
If you would like to join a future installation team, fill out this quick form and look for an email from us!
