Right now my front yard is what you call a "Gardner's garden." I don't take offense to that - I love plants. The problem is that the perennial beds are just too big for me to take care of and I can't afford to hire a landscape company for regular maintenance. I'd love to satisfy my gardening with smaller more manageable beds and make my front entry way more inviting.
The Landscape designer came back to inventory all of my plants and so we discussed the vision for the front yard.
Here they are:
1.
Fix the front stoop: Existing brick stoop that the previous owners either did themselves or hired someone who made a lot of shortcuts. Since we've moved in, it's been falling apart and we have to fix it properly. Structurally bad, it's also too small and the step is too high. The idea is to make it a 2-step stoop.
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| Our crumbling front stoop - priority #1 |
The LD also assured me it could be made bigger without compromising the life of the Oakleaf hydrangea next to it, which I wish to keep.
2.
Make a courtyard entrance/walkway: Right now I love the canopy the crabapple gives to this space and my bench underneath it feels like a courtyard ... somewhat. I told the LD I wanted a courtyard and he really felt that utilizing the L-shape area would be a perfect place for this. He agreed and is making me a plan to incorporate a courtyard with my perennial bed that is under the crabapple - which is pretty and low maintenance.
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| Larry, Darryl & Darryl and the future courtyard |
3.
Viburnums-a-bye-bye: I love Larry, Darryl, & Darryl, my 3 Judd Viburnums, but the new courtyard design will eliminate the 2 soldiers standing guard near the front door to make the door more visible. Larry can remain.
4.
Spruce, another bye bye: The Spruce by the road had the plum tree in front and so it has a lot of dead areas. The LD said he's like to see it go because it's unsightly and is in poor health. Once that tree is gone, there will not be much need for all the groundcover growing underneath. It's low maintenance, but I'm getting invasive groundcovers coming in which is making it high maintenance. The plan is to grass up this area. That way, the bed behind it can be seen from the road and it is a pretty perennial bed.
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| The lonely, spindly, spruce |
5.
Shared Sunny Garden, Simplified: My neighbor and I garden the shared lot line between our houses. My side is always a mess and I can't stand it. I like the 2 lilacs, the magnolia and the beautyberry (of which I both planted). Other than that ... yuck. Our LD agreed that this area needs to be simplified and he will tackle that with the understanding that 1/2 belongs to my neighbor. I also have a thug in that garden - bishops weed - which the only solution to eradicate is Round-Up...
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| A hodgepodge of mess |
I was happy to learn that I am growing some plants he said were difficult to grow - pulmonaria, corydalis, and the beautyberr, that my 2 trees (magnolia and dogwood) have frost damage (no disease), I planted my dwarf blue spruce too deep (re-plant), and that my spicebush may be right on or over the lot line (ARGH!).
