Wednesday, June 18, 2008

One year ago.......

This is our house as I saw it for the very first time....the day we moved in last June 16...YIKES!

The yard was so sad. The kids said it looked like the house from "Monster House." It even had a little "Charlie Brown" tree...you can see it on the right front of the photo. Needless to say, anyone who knows me knows I went into HYPER DRIVE and started changes as soon as the moving van pulled out. I am so fortunate to have a husband who loves DIY as much as I do!



Here is the 'one year' picture....I can't WAIT until the plantings mature. Click on the picture to see more of the plants up close:


Over the last year we concentrated on the front landscaping.
At the entry, I added some urns and repainted the door and shutters a color I liked better than the original mauve.

We couldn't afford to have a professional company do it......which is okay as we actually enjoy the work. First we moved the struggling azaleas (seen in the first photo) to a better location and now they are thriving.
Here is what we added so far.....
2 crape myrtles, lamb's ear, lavender, rosemary and thyme, a variety of ornamental grasses, day lillies, indian hawthorne, alyssum, 3 River Birch trees (they came in a clump) and 1 Lace Bark Elm, 3 ground orchids (still not blooming...too early), rain lillies, iris, lantana, purple oxalis, agapanthus, ballerina, fairy and knock out roses, and 2 bottle brush bushes! Everything we planted will naturalize and eventually choke out weeds which will mean less work for us in the long run.

We will add some purple coneflower, yarrow and fern leaf coreopsis but they aren't in stores just yet.

We added the pergola in March and the morning glories are about a third of the way up so far.
Next year they'll run a lot faster because they'll have something to hang on to. The ardesia is doing a great job of covering everything up on the ground and by next year, we won't need mulch or the little edging to keep them in place.


Here is a close up of the morning glories.....more bloom EACH day..........


Not a bad start! I can't WAIT to see the pergola at the end of October.....I hope the morning glories make it to the top this year!

So....what is our project for THIS YEAR?
We will work on the backyard.....we just added onto our teensy patio and once we get a free weekend, we'll add an arbor.
Then the REAL fun begins with foundation plantings and a permanent herb garden for these.

7 comments:

Adrienne said...

beautiful. We've been in our house 4 yrs and it ... ahem ... we have a long way to go!

Jennifer said...

looks great.....your house is pretty!

jillytacy said...

Wow what a difference! It's amazing how the landscaping changes make it look so much more homey and appealing! It's beautiful!

Kellie said...

Y'all have a real knack for landscaping! It looks wonderful...much prettier than the before! You're house is lovely, but w/that brown yard and Charlie Brown tree, it didn't stand out like it does now!

Oh to have a green thumb! We moved in two years ago and we still look like the "Otter Lake Clampets" (my favorite phrase to goad mark about our lack of nice lawn).

sauvageblue said...

You have done a wonderful job, you planted so many plants I love, shutters look great love the color.

mike said...

I love what you've done with the place! ;)

craftytammie said...

I love the pergola, I actually just saw one like yours in a garden magazine and wanted one! Lucky you, I can't wait to see mine vines flower!

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