How to Do a Front Door Facelift

Male Speaker: This morning, the Harrisons showed up in the garden center looking for something to replace those sad looking spider plants in their front yard. But they are about to get a whole bunch more than those two shopping carts of plants. Ahmed Hassan: My two fools with tools, are you ready guys? Jennifer: We are ready. Ahmed Hassan: Look at this, Anna is eating her shovel. Jennifer: She is ready to go. Ahmed Hassan: Alright guys, so here is what we are thinking. We all agree that the spider plants and the rocks are not doing anything to increase the aesthetics, so they got to go. The border is going as well; we want one nice clean bed of just soil when we are done, okay? Jeff: Alright. Ahmed Hassan: Jeff, if you can get together with Matt, I want you guys to start working on these rocks and removing this border, it's got to come out. Ladies, we are going to start taking out all of these plants, okay? Are you ready, Gracie? Jennifer: Alright. Male Speaker: Jennifer and Jeff have good intentions but this front garden needs some height and shape, and to get that done, they are going to need some more plants. But the first step is to loose the spider plants. Ahmed Hassan: Alright ladies, so here is what we want to do. Are you listening Gracie? We are going to dig all these plants up, just basically go around the plant so that you can loosen it and pop it up. And it is important that we get all these roots out or these little fleshy tubers. Do you see those? Jennifer: Yeah. Ahmed Hassan: We want to get as many of those as we can out of there, otherwise they are going to send up new plants. Okay! Jennifer: And we will have spider plants again? Ahmed Hassan: You will have spider plants again. And no doubt, yes, you won't get them all, and some plants will pop up and then you just take those out as you see them emerge. Okay! So let's get out as many of those we can and let's try and keep the soil off of it because we don't want it whole away there. This stuff is heavy, and we have got to dispose it later if you guys don't want them. Shake it high, shake it low! When you step on it, it makes the shovel goes down, and then pop it up. Go around it and then once it's light, then you just pop it up. You are almost there, you got it, look at that. Gracie, you must ate breakfast this morning, look at that. Gracie: No, I didn't. Ahmed Hassan: You didn't? Gracie, you are dancing. Mika Matsui: Ahmed, don't forget to save me one, I have a really good idea. Ahmed Hassan: Oh! You want to salvage one, huh? You know what, you should dig up one that you like then, because I am stepping on these and they are getting thrashed. Mika Matsui: Okay. Ahmed Hassan: There we go. Male Speaker:Jeff and Jennifer came home with a few plants but to get that full formal look Jen is looking for, it's going to take more than a few plants. So Ahmed gets on the phone to place an order. Ahmed Hassan: Lots of them. Male Speaker: So what's the plan? In the far right corner, Ahmed wants to put something tall like a Thuja Arborvitae to provide a nice formal look for Jen. Jeff likes ferns, so Ahmed has in mind some leatherleaf ferns and mother ferns. They are both really tough as far as ferns go, but they have a nice soft look. Then he wants to lock it all in with a boxwood hedge, right across the front. That will maintain the formality and help to find the planter bed. Finally, this garden is calling out for a little color like some primrose. Ahmed Hassan: Hey, did you guys put this border in, because it's like mortar and cement or what --? Jeff: I don't know what is really involved, this was here when we bought the house. Ahmed Hassan: I think he was as -- upside down skeleton Matt: I like it, they held it in there. Ahmed Hassan: They made it straight. Matt: They did Ahmed Hassan: So what about these metal sticks, those are just pound in for support. Jeff: Yeah, we'll pull it right out. Ahmed Hassan: Good! I love it, this is fast and easy. I am going to take off my jacket guys and my hat, so we can do this. Jeff: I was really surprised how easy that concrete border came up. I was kind of actually bombed it was that easy, because I would have done it a lot sooner had I known that. Jennifer: I am so excited the spider plants are gone. Woo-hoo! Ahmed Hassan: So here is what we got next. This planter bed over here, see the front line of this planter bed you have? What we want to do is continue this line because it's forward and then based on the line up with this crack, we are going to straight across to the driveway, okay? Jeff: Alright. Ahmed Hassan: Twelve inches in, we want to have another line. So basically, we are going to have a twelve-inch column here within. What that column is, is your new boxwood hedge, we are going to place our boxwood fence right in between there and that's so far ahead. We are going to do the same thing on the other side. Jeff: Very nice. Ahmed Hassan: Alright. Jennifer: Wow! Jeff: That' sounds great. Ahmed Hassan: So let's do that, if you want to do the honors. Jen, I need your help over here. Jen: Okay! Ahmed Hassan: She and I will go get some plants. Male Speaker: Ten hours later, under a chilly night sky, the crew is about to slap a done sticker on the Harrison front yard. In a single day, they excavated those ugly spider plants and planted things that will provide color, height and lots of interest. But in addition to the garden bed, Ahmed and his crew overhaul the walk way. Gone are the ugly leaf beds and in are two manicured semicircle gardens complete with lighting. Ahmed Hassan: So what do you think, you like it more than the leaf bed. Matt: I like it a lot more than leaf bed. Ahmed Hassan: Do you think they are going to like it more than the leaf beds? Matt: I think they are going to love it. Ahmed Hassan: You did good. Matt: So did you. Ahmed Hassan: You just did what I told you,right. Matt: Exactly. Ahmed Hassan: Keep doing it. Matt: It was easy Ahmed Hassan: So let me help you finish up mulching. Matt: Let's do it. Ahmed Hassan: You are doing the pot. Matt: I am doing the pot. Ahmed Hassan: I will finish doing this little half circle. Yeah, I like this a lot better. Now the leaves can all fall in the lawn and Jeff can just break them up after he is done with his -- . Well, as you can see, it's down to the munch time. This is really going to help to give our planter bed a real finalized look. Things are going good here, but it's getting dark and it's getting cold. Are you guys cold? Jennifer: Freezing. Ahmed Hassan: I am going to make a little six inch row here of mulch in front of this hedge, just to give it some nice formality. Don't put too much mulch around the base of your plants. Make sure you spread it out right there at the base. If you hold in too much moisture, then you are going to rut your plants, and you don't want that. Male Speaker: Ahmed and the crew spread a little mulch and with that, the Harrison's front yard is all new. The low lying spider plants are gone, replaced by a nice compliment of head rose, ferns and colors. Gone also is what Matt lovingly called the leaf garden. The new entry walkaway is nicely finished with the two semicircle gardens complete with plants, accents and lighting. Ahmed Hassan: They come bearing cocoa. Jeff: You guys are wonderful. Ahmed Hassan: You are so wonderful. So what do you guys think? Jennifer: Amazing! Jeff: I am speechless. Ahmed Hassan: Are you going to start hanging out of the store now looking for us every weekend? Are they here? Jennifer: Yeah, come to our backyard. What other could you do to our leaf bed? They are great, l love this. Ahmed Hassan: She has got a leaf bed too. Matt: These are not always going to be dirt, it's grassy down there, if you keep that wet, all the grass will be back in. And I also heard that it was somebody's birthday? Ahmed Hassan: Happy Birthday! Mika Matsui: It's one of the spider plants from the bed and just bring it inside and give it plenty of water and it will do really well.