plOTTing and planting: Our Landscaping Project

After months of talking about it, we finally planted the Landscape in front of our house!!!  You see we bought our house a year and a half ago and one of first things I wanted to change was the landscape.  I'm pretty sure the overgrown yew bushes were as old as the house.  (See below)  But, other projects needed our attention first so the landscape got put on hold, until about a month ago when we decided it was time to start addressing the landscape. 

Now with most projects around the house we have had to learn how to do the project before we started.  (Like last summer when we laid the patio; we read books, asked questions, searched the web, even stood in Home Depot and watched a video on how to do it.)  So when I started talking about the landscape Ott, E thought it was time to start going through the whole research process again.

"Oh no, no, no." I said.  "If there is one thing I know how to do, and if there is one thing I am not indecisive about at all, it's LANDSCAPING." 

What Ott, E knew but maybe didn't exactly realize is that growing up my parents owned a landscaping nursery.  I spent many a weekend and evenings after school helping out with pruning and installation work.  And from listening to them talk about it and seeing it done numerous time, it all just kinda sunk in and therefore, no research was necessary.  I measured out how much edging, weed barrier and rock we would need, and which kind of plants could be planted to give us height, color, foliage and blooms throughout the year.  So after the older bushes were removed we spent the first weekend digging a trench for the edging and laying down the weed barrier. 

The second weekend we planted the bushes and put down the stone.  As you can see in the picture below I placed trees on my corners for height, and then planted the bushes in between in a pattern where one half mirrored the other.  Again, the best tip I can give anyone who is looking to landscape is to make sure you select plants that give you color, foliage, and blooms throughout the coarse of the year. 

We selected a red bud for the corner of the porch and a weeping spruce for the other corner.  At the base of the Red Bud I planted 3 carpet junipers which will eventually grow to cover the ground underneath tree.  Now for color I planted some Gold Flame Spirea and a purple leaf Sand Cherry.  For some different flowering bushes I planted Miss Kim Lilacs (they are a drawrf lilac) a Wegila (which the humming birds like) and 2 Hydrangea (see the red colored one at the very top of the post; it is a Summertime Lace).  And, to ensure we will still have some foliage in winter I planted 2 Birds Nest Spruce.  For some filler I planted two Hostas (these plants do well in the shade) and some Emerald and Gold Eunoymous.

While these plants may look a little small right now, give them a year and they will fill quite nicely and Ott, E will be back out there pruning them.