Design

Landscaping, Landscaping, Landscaping

May 21, 2012

The landscaping around our house was…. not so good. It involved lots of plants that weren’t right for the space and more red mulch than I have ever seen. We spent weeks raking that infernal mulch up, but finally it’s mostly gone, save for the very, very deep reservoir of it under our front porch. As we’ve cleared it away, we’ve been putting in new plants and getting everything looking nice. Here’s a look at what we’ve done so far.

The Back!

The back part of the house was the first thing that we tackled. We turned the small space beside the sidewalk into a planter for veggies and herbs, as well as a few flowers. Hopefully, once the nice summer weather kicks in, they’ll be thriving.

Our grass is coming in really great, too. Never had sod before but it’s pretty awesome!

Why is this Dianthus so huge? That’s because it is from last year. We had such a mild winter it never died and came back this year with A TON of blooms. This image is not color-enhanced, it’s really that bright!

My lovely, lovely anemone. It is blooming like crazy right now.

Bog rosemary. Couldn’t resist, it looked so neat!

I also picked up these fence planters on sale. They look great with some succulents in them.

The Front!

The front of our house was a multi-step project. We started with the smallest planter. I had to rip out an azalea (who plants one of these in full sun? No wonder it was half dead) and I replaced it with a Sedum. I’ve also got some other lovely flowers planted there that I can change from year to year.

Here’s a close up of my ranunculus.

The left side of our porch was the next thing I tackled. After moving an arborvitae bush (which I learned I am quite allergic to, after getting hives), I replanted the azalea along with a little friend for it. It is in full bloom!

I added some shade loving plants (another anemone, love those things!) and left some space for a future columbine that might call it home.

The large planter in front of our house was the biggest challenge, because, well, it was sooo big. It was a lot of mulch to remove and a lot of dirt to move around.

At the heart of our planter, we decided to put in a pretty Japanese maple. It’s slow-growing so it should stay a manageable size for the space for quite some time. I have always wanted one, so I’m happy that it worked for our space. Since we don’t have a big car, the guys from Home Depot were nice enough (or crazy enough, you decide) to let us wheel the tree on one of their carts the mile or so to our house. My husband took care of that, which meant that I got to dig the massive hole for it. Not fun, but it got done and the tree is looking great!

Here are some close-ups of some of our other picks.

Dianthus

Pincushion Plant

 

Cranesbill

Veriegated Weigelia (small now, but it will get very large.)

The maple took over for this pine tree, which is now in a pot. Hopefully we can find it a new home, it will be lovely someplace where it can grow without being obnoxious! It was about two feet from our house before, not an ideal location for a tree that will get 80-100 feet tall.

I also got around to finally putting this little white table I have had forever back together. The nuts had gotten lost a long time ago, but I bought new, got some cute chairs and it’s ready to enjoy! Can’t wait to spend lots of time outside this summer!

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