After a few weeks we finished our backyard project. One day of tilling up the old grass, one day of planting, a half day of putting in the edging, and a couple days worth of moving a giant pile of mulch from the driveway to the backyard:

We've been planning this project for a while, and I never thought we'd do it this year. I'm glad we did though because it looks nice - and now I don't have to mow around those damn trees!

In the pictures you'll notice a lot of dead grass around the landscaped area. We used Roundup (lawn/plant/weed killer) to kill the lawn first before tilling it up, but it really didn't do any good. The roots are still there in the ground and it's still hard as hell to rip up the sod. If anything, live grass probably would have had more moisture and would have been softer to cut through with the tiller. So if you're going to use a tiller to get rid of grass, don't bother with Roundup.