Wanted: Yard Makeover

5.31.2011

Wanted: Yard Makeover

Posted by Megean on 5.31.2011

If you’ll think back to 2010, you may remember that I made a few home resolutions for the year. One of which was to get my landscaping under control. I totally tout the “freedom lawn” approach, a.k.a. the “I don’t know what I’m doing so I’ll just let it grow” approach. After a year of somewhat disastrous lawn maintenance I had a few thoughts about what I wanted to do with my yard. Consider this my first step to a complete yard makeover.

My freedom lawn comes complete with packed-tight shrubs, weeds everywhere (some the size of trees!), random bricks, stones, and concrete, and little to no definition. Armed with some new flowers, a few boxwoods, herbs and vegetables, and about a billion pounds of mulch, I went to work on the great planting weekend of 2011.

Before I moved in some small shrubs had been planted along the front of the house. There were far too many of them and they were too close together. Cut to 3 years later – I finally took the plunge and moved every other shrub (13 all together!). Some were moved to the side of the house, and some to the back.

I also added a couple of boxwoods, potted my patio vegetable and her garden, and planted one lone zinnia (a total impulse buy at the nursery). As a final touch I spread mulch around the front and the back to add definition and keep some of the weeds at bay.

You may notice a stack of stones that I dug up in the back yard. I am thinking of using them as a start for a small patio behind my screened-in porch at the back.

What do you think? There’s still so much to be done, but I hope it’s a good start. And, as with everything, I’m sure I’ll change my mind about how I want things to look in the not-too-distant future.

images: Megean