Landscaping BEFORE and AFTER

One of the first projects we chose to tackle in this house was the landscaping in the front yard. Everything was very overgrown and hiding the house.

Lucky for us we had a friend who works at a landscape architect firm. He created some designs that we could phase into. I shared with him some inspiration ideas that I liked. We talked about the style of home that we have and what would compliment it well.

So the year after we moved in, we began phase 1. We attempted to remove one of the large shrubs ourselves but we couldn’t begin to get the 20+year root system out so we decided this job was best left up to professionals. There was a lot to remove! Our phase 1 plan included removing all of the plantings that were up close to the house. We left the plants that were on the opposite side of the sidewalk.

I liked the layered, manicured look for landscaping. The below photos were some of my inspirations. I loved the hydrangeas in the back with the boxwoods in front of them and I liked the flowers creating the hedge up close to the sidewalk.

Our phase 1 plan was just to remove everything and then plant layer 1 as we’d call it. The plants that line the foundation of the house. Our following phases include removing sidewalk and some bigger changes. We haven’t fully decided how much of the plan we will implement yet so we just started with what was manageable and avoided huge concrete work changes.

Here are some BEFORE photos:

DURING:

AFTER: The Annabelle hydrangeas are in between the Emerald Greens. The Annabelle hydrangeas have seemed to struggle to get going. We’ve had to replace some and I’m still not sure if they are going to make it. I think I have started to figure out how to water them properly. First they were getting flooded by a broker sprinkler line. Then the small plants were getting chewed up by rabbits. Then the painters smashed several. We’ll see this Spring if they make it or not. They have been very frustrating for me and I’ve been nursing them for what feels like way too long. We may have to try a different variety if they still struggle this year.

And here’s our final AFTER we painted the house: