After and before on my Japanese garden inspired patio transformation
It has been a lot of work and learning how to prune and wire and shape my new plants. I've been trying to add in native species as I go as well to reduce some maintenance. Training eastern red cedar and common juniper will be more difficult than my Chinese junipers but I have no shortage of saplings that want to grow in these 50 year old unmaintained rock beds.
I'm mostly just embracing the weeds and I do a pass by with the string trimmer every other week to keep them from getting too big. I have no desire to rip out these rock/soil beds, so I'm going to lean into them.
Many of the plants I have gotten for free or cheap locally and some are still being rehabilitated from neglect.
Sanding and refinishing the porch beam was an absolute nightmare, but the cvc Douglas fir looks so good and I'm glad I didn't just clad it in cedar even though it would have been way easier and less time consuming.
I plan on getting rid of most of the grass over time and landscaping more of the front yard with native grasses and other plants, as well as as many boulders I can find for free or cheap nearby. So far I plan on adding staghorn sumac and some more black locust and maple trees that I plan on maintaining as niwaki. I also have some blue spruce seedlings that I plan on training Into bush like shapes.