When I was writing my Suddenly Frugal book, I found a spending figure that gave me pause: Americans spend billions (with a “b”) each year by hiring professional landscapers to spruce up their yards. Well, I wasn’t about to become just another spending statistic. After keeping the costs of our renovation project in check by doing the finish work ourselves, it only made sense to do the landscape the DIY way, too.

One of the biggest challenges we face in our “new” backyard is a hill and ensuring that we can direct water away from the house. To that end we had our contractor create a berm next to the new construction, and then it was up to us to plant, well, plants that would also hold up the soil as time went on.

We ended up getting a great deal on juniper–the blue rug and Bar Harbor kind–from Lowe’s: four for $10. And that’s what we primarily planted on the sloping part of the hill, above left. I think we ended up with 40 of them in there. Over time they’ll grow and spread, and their roots will hold the soil in place–so I’m told.

Practicality aside I also wanted some color back there, and to that end I bought other plants that were not only labeled “water wise” but “deer resistant” as well. These included:

yellow coreopsis (right)

purple sage (left)

big blue liriope (right, but it’s just green now; it flowers in late summer)

and moutain fire pieris, below left, which my mother informed me is also known as adromeda. (I love how the new growth on this plant is red.)

All told I think we spent about $150 on plants, which I know is a heck of a lot less than we would have spent if we’d brought someone in to do the landscaping.

Next up? Planting our new lawn.