House Beautiful

Another "finally"! After moving into this house nearly 14 months ago, we have finally finished the landscaping in the front yard. I've been wanting a nice looking yard from day 1! Well, ok, maybe day 7. I did give us somewhat of a grace period. Anyway, this past month I came into a small bit of money, so I decided to go for it! We went a little bit over, but I figured landscaping adds value to our home so we can increase our basis in it for tax purposes when/if we sell it. (I'm practicing for my new job on Wednesday. See previous post!)

Pictures will show the details way better than I could ever say them so here they are:


As you can see, I am having to learn the art of shade gardening. The front of our house faces north. I did not know that north is the side that gets NO sun. I think the bed in front of the office (room on the left) will get some early morning sun in the summer. Not so, in the fall or winter.




I bought 3 azaleas. I've lived with azaleas my whole life. I love them when they bloom. But quite frankly, I was tired of them. So why did I purchase 3? Well, in browsing shade perennials, I quickly noticed, there ain't many. The girls loved these flowers so I decided they were worth trying. My only concern is that azaleas don't like "wet feet", i.e. soil that stays wet, and we have TONS of clay. In fact, we have ONLY clay. We dug up a lot and substituted Miracle Gro garden soil along with purchased top soil. (We have so much clay, I need to go take a pottery class.)

I also purchased 3 ferns. They are listed as FULL SHADE which is exactly what this place gets. The sod I dug up wasn't even growing there. I hope these live. This particular type is called a Tassle Fern b/c the new growth is supposed to look like tassles.

The plant by the door is an arborvitae. Hetz midget. I love the look of these plants. They are dwarf plants that only get maybe 3 feet tall. Emerald arborvitaes can reach 6 to 8 feet!


Here is the area we completed this summer. This spot was meant to be a garden. It is huge! We put the path in so we wouldn't have to garden the entire thing. Plus, it's just different. The front part with the small chrysanthemums does get some sun. I planted petunias there this summer and they thrived!




So there's my new garden! I love it! I can't wait until my daffodils bloom in the spring. They are planted outlining the right side of the sidewalk and then the bed on the left.