Landscape alteration

A few days ago our landscape was altered. We didn't have a choice in the matter. The creek in our backyard was eroding its banks and threatening to invade people's property so they hired a company to place large stones at select bends in the creek to help slow the erosion, and it so happens that one of those places was right next to hour house. I can't complain too much because I don't want the creek any closer to our home, but I could have done without the means of getting the stones back there, which involved cutting through the brush on the south side of our house.

I happened to have a photo that I took a few days before they did this, so I could do a before and after to show the extent of the change:

Before & After

Now, this side of the house I have more or less left alone since we moved in. The brush from the forest was overgrown and the bushes next to the house were as well, so I figured it was a good match and left it that way until I had the time and energy to take on that project. But now the project is semi-forced upon me, or at least I'm seeing it as an opportunity to take it on since it is now pretty much a clean slate over there.

Yesterday I dug up some of the landscaping bricks that were over there (most of them were completely buried and in some cases jammed between roots that had grown around them) and am planning on using the rest of the remaining mulch to just mulch that whole area. Then, I'll have another area to put some more plants - yay! Here's my plan:

That area gets a decent amount of morning sun, especially with much of the surrounding brush removed. Unfortunately, there's a stump and a whole bunch of roots there, too. I'm going to try to dig it up, but I might not be able to - we'll see.

So, this will be my new project and will allow me to finally get the mulch pile off of our driveway.