I loved our yard at the old house. LOVED it. It had really mature landscaping and beautiful grass. Hubs worked really hard to keep that yard looking good and I was so proud of it. When we bought the rental house, I had big plans for the yard... Honey Do List grew and grew :)
This is where we started. We had several trees taken out when we first bought the house last summer. We talked about building on a front porch eventually, but honestly we aren't sure we will do that at this point, so landscaping was a must.
I've blogged about it, but we started by adding a large picket fence so the kiddos can play and I won't get a head full of gray hair trying to keep them out of the street. We bought the paint for the fence on Saturday, and I'm hoping Hubby will have time to start spraying it this weekend! We've been waiting for the wood to cure and also the pollen to go away.
We also added larger flower beds out front to add some depth to the house. It's a ranch house, so naturally it's going to feel somewhat flat. Adding interesting architecture (like a front porch or stoop) helps, but if you don't have that in the budget ( we don't right now ), look to the great outdoors.
I decided to go with a few plants I know I can't kill from previous experience- knockout roses and loropetalum. We also had day lilies from Mark's grandmother's garden and planted those. They will hopefully be blooming next summer!
I wanted to go ahead and extend the beds to the sidewalk since the grass really wasn't growing well (or at all) under this tree.
I decided to plant guacamole hostas here. I'm having to spray them every day to keep the deer, rabbits, and snails from destroying them. They are not that low maintenance. Any tips on caring for them would be greatly appreciated!
They are worth the extra care though because I do think they are pretty!
On the side yard I'd like to plant aspidistra (well, after pulling all these weeds of course!).
Aspidistra is everywhere down here. I think it feels so coastal.
And then there's this side of the house... we took out two trees over here and it left the chimney kind of bare. I need to plant a few shrubs over here so it's not so naked :)
And along this fence line, I plan to do my favorite- hydrangeas.
I am enjoying yard work more and more, but you won't see me cutting the grass any time soon...
The other exterior update we are planning right now is the front railing. It is beginning to rust at the bottom, and I've wanted to change the iron railing to something more updated. My dad said it'd be fairly simple to replace it with either wood or vinyl. I think it will dramatically change the look of the front steps. I chose wood- even though it's more upkeep than vinyl. I just think it'll look much better on this house.
So, Hubs and Dad are going to replace the railing next time my dad's in town. Can't wait! It should look similar to this one:
I also plan to paint the brick steps the same gray as our shutters, whenever I get around to it... which who knows when that may be!
Progress not perfection right?
