First off we ripped out all the old plants they had in the front and made sure when we were finished we didn't cover up the humps of the or we would end up killing the tree. In Jim's words "the tree would die a long slow death" because the humps help the tree breath. We built the raised stack stone bed, added gravel to the side of the bed and a few stepping stones to get to the front door. Then we added plants in the beds, mulched and applied organic fertilizer.