Yard MakeOver on a BUDGET!!

Okay, so I don't claim to be an "expert" in gardening... but I do profess to LOVE gardening.  And just BEING IN the garden is a bliss for me!  All my troubles disappear when I'm in my garden.

 

 Here I'm starting with the AFTER...where the cosmos grew taller than me this year. This is a SIDE YARD by the way.

 

AFTER: Heavenly morning & evening walks took place here!

As a lover of gardening, and a frugal domestic diva, of course I always try to find ways to transform my garden (garden areas) with the least amount of money or effort.

Here you see what I mean.  A few seed packets of Cosmos & Sweet William completely transformed this side yard in my house.

One thing that works for me is to spend a little time before & after I have to go to "work".  It both clears my mind at the start, and relieves stress at the end of the day!

 

This is how it started out. You can see some stepping stones (it's what I saw)  next to the fence, which I ended up moving to the middle and arranging in curvy pathway.

BEFORE: You can see the end of the gate at the end...looking toward the street. 
When I first saw this I could "see" the possibilites!

 

It's nice to have a place to sit, rest, and enjoy he journey of a growing garden.

 

This is looking toward the backyard...notice the tall pine trees in the background.
An apple tree was later planted right before the trees. It was grafted with 3 types of apples!

 

Here you still see the pine trees but the Cosmos are just loving it here! The only drawback about Cosmos is that they're annuals.  You just got to take them out at the end of the season, but you get to start over with something NEW! :)

This space evolved as the years passed and different beautiful flowers grow here, inlcluden even an apple tree.

What I did
Basically all I did here was just dig up around the whole area to loosen the dirt. Then I moved the "pavers" (anything I found around the yard) to form the path I wanted. I also installed a drip irrigation system to water things. Once I planted (scattered) the seeds and added other plants here and there as I came across something on the "discount shelf" a Lowe's it pretty much just evolved to what you see.

Enjoy playing in YOUR garden!