The Front Yard - Landscape

I'm quite thrilled to show you how we've made on in our front yard.

Truth be told, I wasn't sure how we were going to pull it off. Neither Ryan, nor myself, are in any way professional landscapers, and aside from enjoying gardening, we have little experience doing any sort of landscape design.

However, after finally deciding to decommission our existing septic system, and hook up to town septic lines, our front yard was utterly destroyed. To be fair to the crew, they did their best to work around my well established lilac bushes, and they even managed the save a small white pine we had planted when we first bought the house. But everything else had to go. 

We literally started from scratch.

The entire front yard was scraped and leveled. This was a huge amount of work. Because we were on a tight budget, we did everything ourselves, except this part. Our neighbor luckily has a small excavator, and was able to do this for a very reasonably price.

After that, we were on our own. Once we had a blank slate, we mapped out where our new walkway would go, and where the sod would end and gardens would begin. We put in a large flagstone walk, which allowed for access to the front door from both the main drive, and the extra parking space. We had no idea how hard this would be.

Next we built up beds for gardens. We more than tripled the amount of garden space, which once established, will provide a great deal of privacy. After gardens were put in, the entire front lawn was given a layer of top soil, and we laid sod. Our property is on an angle, and no matter how hard we tried to come up with a symmetrical design, something curved and free-flowing worked much better.

Finally came the planting, which was my favourite part. I think I visited over 20 garden centers in the area. I had a very specific list of perennials that I was looking for.

After the work was finished on the yard, we decided to spruce up the house a little. We've never really done anything to the exterior, and as I mentioned before, our budget was small. But, a little paint on the eves and shutters went a very long way. It'll look even better in a couple weeks once the new roof is installed.

Spending money on your septic is so unrewarding. If you're going to invest a large amount of money in your home, you hope to at least have the benefit of enjoying the results. However, now, each time we come home and walk up our front walk, we do just that! It's so nice to have a yard and gardens again.

You can see here that we still need to install our edging posts around the extra parking space. I'm also on searching for two larger lanterns to mount on either side of the door, and a new fixture for above it. I think this will bring more balance to the entrance.

My goal was to create a full, multi-levelled garden that blooms throughout the year. Once matured, the garden will have entirely filled in. All of the lower front plants are wild Geraniums and a couple varieties of Anemonies which spread and have beautiful white blooms. In the back, for height, I planted Dogwood and Vibernum bushes. These will get quite large, and create privacy. There is also a white Magnolia tree, a Peony tree, and a dwarf Cypress tree planted.

I grouped varieties of Hydrangeas together to create more of an impact. I also have a few varieties of Peonies planted to break up a the design a little, and flowering Woodruff as low ground cover.

Here you can see how established my Limelight Hydrangeas are, to the right of the house. I'm looking forward to seeing the entire garden established.

Between the houses here is where my Lilac bushes are. Unfortunately they are now quite sparse. I've planted a new Lilac in the back corner, as well as another Vibernum, which in time, will fill out this empty space.

This is my Mother-in-law's garden. The landscape design was done years ago by some of Ryan's best friends. I love how it's evolved and filled out perfectly over time. I used many of the same plants like the Dogwoods and Anemonies and Woodruff.

Now I just have to patiently wait. 

Hydrangeas in the Garden

My mostly green gardens have erupted into a sea of splendid white blooms.

Tonight, they are heavy and bent low from the summer rains.

My Pee Gee hydrangeas are fully in bloom in the front gardens. It's their first year and I'm please with how well they've come along. These were the ones that I picked up from our local garden center for $10 on Earth Day.

My Annabelle hydrangeas are fully open, and nearly finished with the heat. They are my earliest bloomers.

Our sod has filled in nicely, and we are so happy to have the landscaping done in the front. However, I can't wait to see everything established and fill in over the next few years.

My Limelight hydrangeas are enormous! They have entirely filled out my from garden and stand more than 8 feet tall. 

My Bombshell hydrangeas, one of my earlier bloomers, have started showing the slightest hints of pink.

This variety, Bridal Veil, is new to my back gardens. It's similar to a Mophead hydrangea, or Lacecap.

I even got a few large blooms from my newly planted Oakleaf hydrangeas. They've been planted all along the garage, and I can't wait to see them established. They're so majestic looking with their large, shapely foliage and handsome blooms.

Our hedgerow isn't a variety of Hydrangea, but it does flower and is quite fragrant.

And my beautiful flagstone walkway that Ryan spent days working on. 

I couldn't be happier with it, dear!

Eriostemon and Hardscaping the Front Yard

One of my favourite parts of working at the store is picking out the cut flowers for our hand-tied bouquets. Twice a week our flower truck arrives with buckets full of fresh flowers; some in season from local growers, and others imported. Most of what is available is common, but there always seems to be something I haven't seen before, or something particularly special that isn't in season yet.

Last week, I took home a few bunches of Peonies. They were quite expensive as they were imported from Holland, but they were a lovely treat. I've had them on my night table and they are taking their sweet time opening, which I don't mind at all.

This week I discovered Eriostemon. It's actually a bunch of greenery but it has delicate little white flowers on it and the most beautiful, fresh scent. It's like a hint of bright lemon.

 I think a whole bunch of cuttings look beautiful as an arrangement.  

Oliver, all cozy in his favourite spot.

This weekend we also started the hardscaping in our front yard.

Ryan and I removed the old brick pathway to the front door. It will be replaced with a flagstone pathway.

We also had all of the existing sod (or what was left of it at least) scraped off. This week new soil will be added and our gardens will be raised, and weather permitting, we will start laying our pathway. We've also finished getting some quotes for our roof. You can see how awful it is in this photo. It was our "big renovation" we were planning on doing last year... But then our furnace needed to be replaced... And then we needed to decommission our septic tank. And so it had to wait.