Landscaping: Front Yard

When it came to the landscaping, we sought some expert advice. We found a landscape designer who had worked on other yards in our neighborhood that we admired. She helped formulate several different design options, but the cost to have her company do the landscaping work for us was well outside of our budget. Nick and I were attracted to different landscape styles so our compromise was that the front yard would be more what he wanted and the back yard would be more what I wanted. The work began with wiping the canvas clean.

Front yard: before.

The side yard between our property and the neighbors was overgrown and the front yard contained more weeds than grass. We dug out the overgrown bushes and dug up the pieris tree to transplant in the back yard. The new design involved ripping out the original steps and curvy pathway and pouring new steps and path centered on the front window. Mom had admired the whimsy of the curvy path and I was sad to see it go, but the yard is so small that it limited our options.

Old steps.	Moving the pieris.

Thank goodness for the concrete workers who helped lift the pieris to the back yard. There is no way that we could have done it ourselves!

After the new walkway was poured, we rebuilt the retaining wall with basalt stones that we got for free off of Craigslist. The old retaining wall had been a mixture of different kinds of stones, which didn't have the look we wanted. We worked through a cold but sunny Thanksgiving day while neighbors and their family members strolled by and commented on our dedication. In my opinion, being outside and working hard was a perfect way to spend our holiday.

The design of the front yard was modeled after a traditional English garden. We envisioned a small hedge lining each section bordering the walkway. Nick calculated that we'd need one hundred boxwoods. That can't be right! He drew it out for me and explained his calculations. Sure enough. We needed one hundred. We found a wholesale nursery that would deliver big enough orders and probably saved 50 - 75% what we would have spent at a retail nursery. We then spent several weekends traveling to various nurseries to pick out other plants for the yard. I wanted a dogwood, which I dreamed would spread its branches giving both privacy and beauty (perhaps in time it will spread.)

It's been a couple years and the boxwoods have grown to where they are almost touching. Hopefully it won't be too much longer until we can trim them into a nice hedge. This year, we hope to add flower boxes under the windows. In the above photo, you'll notice the brick supports waiting to hold some pretty flowers.