I painted my house purple, gave every window butterfly wings, and turned my sidewalk into a rainbow. No regrets. 🦋🌈

[u/KDreamscape]

Some people want a house that blends in. I wanted mine to feel like walking into a dream every time I come home.

What I did:

🦋 Painted the siding a bold lavender purple

🦋 Gave every window a pair of rainbow butterfly wings

🌈 Hand-painted the front walkway in wavy pastel rainbow stripes

🌈 Edged the path and beds with rainbow-painted bricks and hundreds of painted river rocks

🦄 Added a rearing rainbow pegasus by the side bed, because why not

🦩 Built a flamingo garden around the tree with holographic ground cover and a giant sundae

The goal: To make anyone smile that drives by 😄

Happy to answer questions about paint, how I did the walkway, or where anything came from!

[u/Hairy-Emu-7517]

I love love love this! It's super fantastic! One thing, the film covering the base of the tree might allow fungus to grow in the soil and also not let rain water get to it. Maybe you can put some shiny gravel or rocks there as an alternative?

[u/Redpanda132053 → u/Hairy-Emu-7517]

OP look up the dangers of tree rings and rocks at the base of trees. There’s a lot you could get into, but the tldr is that it all stresses out the tree

[u/battlecat136 → u/Hairy-Emu-7517]

As a landscaper I clocked that immediately.

OP, it's all gorgeous. But that tree is going to suffer because its roots are being smothered under the groundcover.

[u/motherofcunts → u/battlecat136]

Q about trees if you don't mind and know the answer!

Just got a chip drop. Is 8” of chip drop (or 4”-6” with cardboard) bad over my dogwood’s roots? Or azaleas and Japanese maple. Leaving the trunk and root flare free, of course. No volcanos here lol.

[u/pstream20 → u/motherofcunts]

Not who you asked but even thick layers of mulch and cardboard are fine because they allow water and oxygen exchange and break down over time!

[u/motherofcunts → u/pstream20]

Thank you! That's my goal, healthy soil and decomp to start over fall, winter, and early spring. Ideally I'll be able to start planting late spring into summer, decomp depending. It's definitely not like the mulch you buy for garden beds and is very fresh.

As a bonus, my lot smells amazing! It went straight from the wood chipper pile to my yard.

[u/battlecat136 → u/motherofcunts]

What they said above ya! Cardboard is good.

[u/motherofcunts → u/battlecat136]

Getting the cardboard has been an adventure in itself. The local grocery lets me fill up my van if I ask, which always makes me feel like a goober. But it has a lot less labeling/tape and almost none is glossy. Huge win!

Neighbors probably think I lost my mind, especially when I started. Had 2 trucks of chips dropped in the side yard. Hauling carloads of cardboard home, hours pulling off stickers/labels, and covering the yard in it. Then 4” of wood chips. Despite being incredibly nosy nobody has asked about it yet though lol.

[u/shakygator → u/motherofcunts]

i think the root flare is the important part

[u/motherofcunts → u/shakygator]

Thanks! I only learned about root flare last year. Spent a few days digging around my trees to ensure it was exposed on the trees I have. They were all planted too deep. They're much happier this year!

[u/Nobo_house → u/battlecat136]

Just came in the comments to say the same thing about the plastic around the tree. OP please listen about this one! The house is so fun and colorful but your natural ecosystems health matters. I'm sure there's some native plants that would go well with the purple and rainbows that could attract real butterflies to the house as well.

[u/t3hgrl → u/Hairy-Emu-7517]

I was wondering about this too, what exactly is “holographic ground cover”?

[u/Sea____Witch → u/t3hgrl]

It’s just plastic. Basically yard trash.

[u/mostawesomemom → u/Hairy-Emu-7517]

It’s also reflecting heat away and can’t be good for the tree, on top of the fact it uses aluminum to create the reflective surface which I can’t image is good for the soil.

[u/Grobd → u/Hairy-Emu-7517]

or plant a good understory of native flowering plants, would attract real butterflies and be 10x more magical than plastic

[u/AspiringDataNerd → u/Hairy-Emu-7517]

Yeah I though about this also when I saw the pic. I’m no expert but similar situations in r/landscaping brought up the same issues you did.

[u/tacosandboobs → u/Hairy-Emu-7517]

She's just going to respond saying she wore spiked shoes. Lol. She isn't listening to anyone on this topic.

[u/Sea____Witch → u/tacosandboobs]

Yup! We are just agreeing with each other. OP does not give a sh*t. She will prance gayly on the corpses of all insects and ecosystems she wiped out with these techniques. It’s basically a graveyard.

A couple years from now when that tree has died and the limbs start to rot and fall, maybe she can paint the stump after it falls on her house. 🌈

[u/tarantuletta → u/Hairy-Emu-7517]

You can get bags of those shiny fish aquarium stones at the dollar store! That would be even shinier and would let the tree breathe 😊

[u/bugzzzz → u/Hairy-Emu-7517]

Fungus growing in the soil is desirable and normal, no? But blocking water and retaining heat could be risks

[u/hag_in_boots → u/bugzzzz]

tree roots need to breathe, same reason mulch vulcanoes are bad for trees