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Finally, the day has come. Today we’re sharing our front yard flower bed makeover. We decided to completely overhaul the space, and we traded traditional black mulch for something a bit bolder and much lower maintenance: black lava rocks for landscaping!
The result: A dramatic, high-contrast, modern look that completely transformed the front of our house. Here is a complete look at our journey and why black lava rock is a game-changer for your front yard.
If you are searching for landscaping ideas these will surely inspire and give you a few to save for your Pinterest board.
If you are still on the fence about lava rocks for landscaping and whether it could be right for your yard, we wrote another post about the pros and cons, and it’s packed with more flower bed design ideas using lava rock!
We love a good before and after. An “after” looks extra glamorous with an obnoxious “before” sitting right next to it! So, let’s get into it!
The Transformation: Black Lava Rock for Landscaping
Ever since we moved in last year, we’ve had an impulse for revamping our yard landscaping with some beautiful flowers, some landscaping rocks, and overall curb appeal. We only had shrubs the builder left us, and we were long overdue for some color. Not to mention our mulch looked drabby and faded. Here is where we started for reference.
BEFORE:
Now let us show you the after!
AFTER:
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It was a toss-up prior to finishing to add the different style interlocking pavers to the very top, but they really add charm and depth to the stone wall. In case your curious, here it is without topping it with the different stone pavers below. We did add a lot of dirt after the retaining wall was built to fill up our raised flower bed.
We headed to our local Lowes and got our filler dirt, landscaping fabric, black lava rock, and plants. The lava rock brand we bought (Flowerock) is no longer available, so I’ll link this one from Lowes.
Moving Forward, before we topped the flower bed with the black lava rock, we staked down landscaping fabric (this link is similar to the one we used) to help with weed control and keep our bed even more on the low maintenance side. Who likes to pull weeds, raise your hand?
We cut a slit in the fabric where the flowers were planted and just worked our way around them. Of course, this may have been a little easier to put the fabric down before the flowers went in.
Once the fabric was staked down, we added the lava rock on top as we went.
Black Lava Rocks for Landscaping around Our Tree
We wanted to make the tree in our front yard more attractive and give it the simple look of the lava rock to match the rest of the landscaping. We used a No-dig edging kit to go around it and staked down some more landscaping fabric. Then we added our black lava rock to the top. Using just a few materials for landscaping around our tree gave it a cleaner look as well as easier to mow.
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AFTER:
Landscaping Perennial Plant Picks
Our front yard gets loads of full sunlight, so we had that going for us plus non-green thumbs (trust me, I know how to kill a plant or two). We chose low maintenance plants that are perennials (meaning they come back every year). Here is a list of the plants we went with.
Fruit Punch Black Cherry Frost Dianthus
Ice Plant (does get pretty flowers)
The firework fountain grass is a great option for privacy! We also used it around our back patio raised bed!
Wine & Roses (these have yet to bloom)
The other random bushes came with the home when we had it built so we embraced them, not sure what they are called.
With some muscle and prep work, you can take your flower beds from messy to stunning with black lava rock landscaping as well beautiful flowers and a garden retaining wall. We shared the full step by step tutorial to building the flower bed retaining wall here.
There’s more to love, be sure to check out our other popular outdoor projects down below or search the blog for more DIY!
Build Your Own Privacy Wall
Composite Decking Flower Bed
Side Yard Landscaping
Playground Border on a Budget
Build A Front Porch Railing
DIY Planter Around Tree
