Front Garden, Meet Mulch!

Disclaimer: I am a novice gardener. As in,  I have no clue what I'm doing! But I'm sure enjoying the heck out of figuring all this out. 

Nate and I moved in to a new place (renting) about a week and a half ago. Here it is, our cute little house! 

Check out that dooooope umbrella-shaped tree out front. Naturally, I've named it Umbert. 

Upon moving in, the front garden beds were in fair condition. There were a lot of weeds, of course, but the bigger problem was-- and still is-- soil condition. The consistency is fine to the point of being sandy and seems to lack in nutrients. So I hit the garden section at Meijer and got to work!

After a vigorous weeding session, I added super-fine red mulch and trimmed the bushes into tidy squares. I just wish I would have snapped a "before" pic! Check out the walkway below. 

Not bad, if I say so myself. 

I trimmed them with a small pair of hand shears. Have you ever seen that episode of The Brady Bunch where Jan tries to cut the lawn with scissors? Yeah, I was having a major Jan moment. I don't have any other trimming tool yet so it'll have to do for now, haha. 

Even though it was time-consuming, it was the easiest part thus far. 

Next, I weeded around the mums (which, like the bushes, were planted by the previous tenant) and put down some more red mulch. 

I still have a lot of work to do on this part. I will have to get some wood stain for the bed borders. I will also have to buy more mums this fall to fill in the rest of the row, which is mysteriously empty. As for the large stones there, I really love how they look, so I left them as is. 

I focused next on the empty space beneath Umbert. I decided to ring the trunk with porous red rocks. 

Lookin' good, Umbert!!

I dug evenly spaced holes around the rocks in order to plant the annual Impatiens I bought (on sale!). 

Pretty pink and purple blooms. And check out my cute blue watering can! 

Umbert has some shallow roots goin' on, so the spacing was a little dicey in some areas. 

Here's a close-up.

But that's ok! 

To combat the poor soil problem, I mixed in some enriched garden soil I bought at Meijer with the existing bed dirt as I planted the Impatiens. Here is a pic from the process.

If I could do it over again, I would mix the soils together before even digging a hole. I just kind of parsed the loose soil together with the enriched soil as I tucked the flower in the ground. Time will tell if it was effective or not. 

Watering action shot! 

Mulch time! 

I wish I had a divider between the rocks and the mulch, such as a black rubber strip... Maybe I'll work on aquiring that.

I filled in the whole bed with mulch. 

And voila!

Finished with that bed! I don't like the empty space in the back against the house, so I think I will split that large hosta plant from the corner and spread it out there... Or I might install a window box. Not sure yet!

I'm not sure if anything I did was correct, or if I may have doomed everything somehow, haha, but it was sure rewarding to work on it. If you have any tips or words of caution, let me know!