Tour of Front & Side Yards

While we have made some progress, we obviously still have a long way to go to make the front and sides of our house look good.  I hope our neighbors will continue to be patient!

First up: West Side Yard

So this view hasn't changed much since last fall, except the huge debris pile has been taken to the dump(all the cut-down trees, pulled out juniper/cottoneaster bushes, and wood pallets).

We really want to finish the siding, for one thing.

Also, I think we'll probably plant grass and have a long flowerbed close to the house, hopefully with some tall-growing shrubs/small trees to break that big blue expanse a little.

We still plan to level off the dirt pile with the neighbor's yard down below, then perhaps put in either retaining wall (or something) up higher where ours slopes up to meet the gate.

We've even considered putting 1-2 extra windows in the master bedroom and playroom to make it look better on this side of the house, but that would be awhile down the road.

These raspberry canes will all be moved to the backyard when we transplant the others.

I would occasionally remember to give them a little spray of water through the fence, but not very often. And the berries got pretty dusty right here. Plus, they just don't look very good right here all by themselves. And they would get in the way of the new bed/shrubs.

Front yard

 I realized I had never taken a picture of our new retaining wall, built last fall.

So here it is, from across the street.

This is where we've seen the most progress.

Also, between these two walls is the flower bed mentioned in my chore list, that needs to be filled-in with dirt, then planted. I want to put a couple of peonies in, some purple coneflowers, perhaps some daisies, and I haven't decided what else. Maybe the lavender from over by the front steps.

I also want to plant some that will trail over the sides of the bottom wall.

We are planning to put in a sidewalk in front of the walls, and widen the driveway.

Which means I'll need to move the bulbs I planted around the mailbox, unless we leave a little planter box square around it, or something.

The ground that is left after sidewalk/driveway go in will also be for shrubs/flowers.

I'm thinking of doing something very shallowly-rooted, like irises from my back flowerbed, since all the power/utility lines run underground right there.

I probably need to wait until the hardscaping is done, though, so my plants don't get trampled in the process.

 These rose bushes really need pruning back.

Maybe I'll get to them before baby?

Then I want to move them, as well. We will probably be changing this entryway at some point--tearing out the stairs and putting in rock steps up to a wider porch...or something. In any case, the rose bushes would have to be moved at that point, anyway. I've thought about putting them in front of our retaining walls, where they start to curve back toward the house.

Only problem is--the water meter is right there in the middle of everything.

These next pictures are from the flowerbed under the eaves in front.

I think all three of these scraggly little shrubs need to be torn out.

Looking back up top at the view from across the street, it looks really strange and unbalanced to have the big bushy evergreen next to the steps, then these three small shrubs, which barely come up to the window.

 I think for anything to really live and do well right here, the bed will need to be extended out by another 1-2 feet, so whatever I plant will not be hidden under the eaves.

Right now I'm thinking either evergreen shrub needs to come out, or I need to put one bigger shrub in on the other side of the window (or small tree, perhaps) that will balance it out. It would need to be roughly the same size and visual heft, which could be hard to do.

If we pulled out the evergreen shrub, or transplanted it elsewhere (maybe a good candidate for the west-side yard?I would still probably put one larger something to the left of the windows.

At the moment I'm thinking of maybe a Japanese maple, or smaller tree like that.

East yard

I didn't take a picture of the main part of this side. It's a bit depressing.

Our current thoughts are one retaining wall running back to the fence.

Grassy slope from house down to wall, with 2-3 half-circle planting beds filled with shrubs/small perennials. Grass or gravel for the flat part as alternative parking pad.

Until all or any of that gets going, here's what's growing right up next to the house:

About the same assortment as last year: irises, tulips, with some wild daisies thrown in.

These will all be transplanted--probably to one of the new planter beds, once those get put in.

With our garden beds done, we're hoping to make some good progress on the rest this year.

Some decent curb appeal would be nice, as would a finished look.