How much does it cost?

The short answer is, surprisingly little. But I'll break down the cost for the 550 ft2 portion of my yard closest to my house for you:

1. Tarps for grass murd*ring: $120 for the few we had to buy - we used old tarps we already owned as well. We used opaque tarps in lieu of clear, I'll write more about that in another post. Not all of these babies survived the process, which made me sad. I mourn the early deaths of non-biodegradable materials.

2. Mulch: $20. I chose to use Chip Drop for my mulch, which can technically be free if you want it to be. However, to ensure that I got mulch soon (and at all), I paid for it. I ended up with enough mulch to do my entire yard, had I wanted to, but I gave a substantial portion of it away after I distributed what I needed. I wasn't ready to do the whole yard yet :)

   

   So much mulch! Plus one chicken :p

3. Edging: $100. We didn't get much fancy edging, we just needed to delineate my walkways and protect our home and fence from rotting next to the mulch. Hardscaping and edging can quickly be the most pricey part of most of yard projects, we got lucky in that we already had a TON of rocks in our yard because the previous homeowner used them as border for beds.

4. PLANTS: $250? I buy most of my plants from Across the Prairie. The upside of buying from Sarah is that all of her plants are wildtype natives to Oklahoma and she doesn't spray anything icky on them. I try very hard to avoid planting wildflower seed mixes, for a myriad of reasons. The only "downside" I will say is that most of Sarah's plant babies are truly babies (she's selling them as fast as the can grow them!), they're real small and young. It takes longer for these wee babes to fill out in your landscaping and sometimes they're a little more work to keep alive, but smaller plants will always = less expensive. They're all gonna grow anyway, right? There are roughly 60 plants in this area, with most of them costing $4 a piece and some closer to $8. Some have died and been replaced- sad day. I also allow volunteers to grow, if I like them, filling out the space for FREE.

5. Tools: $0. My mom lent me some cool tools to help me yank the grass out, and we already had shovels and a wheelbarrow. I will tell you that the most useful tool in the universe for a project like this is a pitchfork. Stop trying to move mulch, grass, and compost with a shovel. Buy the pitchfork. Thank me later.

That's pretty much it, budget-wise. That's about $500 - which I think is pretty dang affordable, don't you?

What I have not broken down (because I truly don't think I can) is how much time this took. I easily spent 50+ hours on the ground, hand-removing grass, weeds, and rock from my yard and preparing it for planting. That's not time spent straight chillin'- it was hot, hard work that did a number on my back, hands, and legs. We should probably note that at least five whole hours of this estimate was probably spent staring at the cute toads/spiders/beetles/worms I found in my yard during the process. This is important and unavoidable, do not skip this step! Always take time to marvel at beautiful precious beings.

In addition to that is the untraceable time I spent researching, planning, sourcing, caring for, and planting all of my plants. All-in-all, I am pleased with our investment and would do it over again in a heartbeat. The new space offers food and hiding spots for insect, bird, and mammal species, provides valuable nutrients to my soil, and provides me with beautiful blooms and interesting greenery to gaze upon all year long.

Some pretty Golden Alexander

Thanks for being here ~ Kelsey