Front Yard Landscaping

In addition to some updates (removing the window blinds that frame the door, replacing the front porch light and door knob, painting the door and frame and cleaning up the trim), we started using a lawn care service that performs routine seasonal maintenance, which has really helped the grass and hopefully made the mole go away. We also finally finished (for now) the front landscaping.

This has been a project we tackled little by little. We moved into this house in the fall of 2018 and the landscaping was not a priority. We have a certain style and prefer a particular kind of landscaping using particular materials and plants. But we did not want to tear everything out, haul it all away, and build it all back. We also did not want to pay for a landscaping company to do it. So I took my mother’s and grandmother’s advice; I lived with it for a while and saw what grew well and decide what I liked.

I came to realize that I prefer partial sun/shade plants like hydrangeas, hostas, and agapanthus (in hot climates they perform best in partial sun). But the front of my house gets afternoon sun so I had to find alternatives.

SPRING 2019

By the spring, things were blooming and dying. I knew I wanted to get rid of the crepe myrtle, monkey grass, azaleas, the front shrubs, and the knockout roses, but I felt guilty pulling up plants that were blooming. So I just planted a couple of agapanthus and moved on to indoor projects.

FALL/WINTER 2019

After a year and a half of watching things grow, digging up the plants that died, moving plants around, and adding a few lamb’s ears, an azalea (because there were already azaleas there), and a gardenia (because there were already gardenias there), we finally decided to work with the rocks on site and clean up the beds.

SPRING 2020

We lined the back of the beds with river rock and large rocks from the backyard. We restructured the flower bed’s walls and added a bed around the big tree on the right side of the yard. Every single rock was re-positioned. We moved a few plants around, added agapanthus, hostas, dianella, and finally added mulch.

Agapanthus were on the right side of the flower bed and also at the front on both sides of the walkway. But as the summer went on, the agapanthus made it known that they were not happy up front in direct sunlight. The hostas were on the shady (right) side of the yard with the agapanthus and eventually I added a few under the tree but they refused to grow.

FALL 2020

So the hostas were moved to the backyard and now they are growing and blooming. The four agapanthus up front were moved under the tree and to the shady side of the flower bed.

We planted two juniper trees and nine Japanese boxwoods. My hope is that by the time summer comes around again the roots are well established and Matt schedules the sprinkler system to run regularly. I am not crazy about the sides of the flower beds. I like the Japanese maple but the rest of the plants are originals that have not died so for now, they will be staying.