Landscaping Makeover

You can click on to any photo to enlarge.


We built our home 29 years ago and at that time had it professionally landscaped. Included in our original landscape plan were lots and lots of shrub holly's that had really gotten to be drudgery to maintain. Not to mention that every time one of the grandchildren bumped up against them we heard lots and lots of tears. I think both my husband and myself wanted to remove them.

A couple of months ago my husband told me he wanted to put in a circular driveway. Our street had become a cut through to a major road in our area. When we had guests they usually parked on the street and he wanted to resolve this problem. At the same time he proposed taking out all the holly's and doing some new landscaping. I was game and in the process we decided to brick all our walkways and it also required reworking our irrigation system. Nothing was simple and it ususlly isn't when you jump on a project like this.

This was the way our front landscaping used to look. It was also the photo I used on my blog.




The old look wasn't bad but you really didn't see our house.




I hired a landscape designer who was trained in England and lived for a time in France. She designed exactly what I was looking for and along the way we made a few changes that I wanted to make but for the most part we worked well together. It does look very different and I will share the changes we made.

This is now my new photo for my blog.






To the right of the house.You can see a boxwood hedge that I plan to keep trimmed, up close to the house in the left corner is a delicate looking low growing maple, to the other side of that is some azalea's that are evergreen and when in bloom are a deep pink.




To the right of the boxwood hedge are some holly's (Remember that we removed some low growing holly's. I told the landscaper not to use the word holly in front of DH.) that we intend to keep sculpted in this cone shape.




On the corner we planted a camilla which will bloom a deep pink double bloom in the winter and directly behind on the trellis we planted a beautiful double white clematis. As it grows I will take some photos of it. To the other side of the camilla we planted more azalea's and a lace cap hydrangea in front.



Behind the sculpted holly's we planted several lacecap hydrangeas in pink with burgandy stems. Can you just imagine those in a clear glass vase with the burgandy stems showing. Some of the plant material was already there such as the boxwood hedge you see in the background. Directly behing that hedge is my back yard garden.



On the left side we did another low boxwood hedge and more azalea's closer to the house. These azalea's will only get about three feet tall.



This is to the far left of the house in front of another side porch. I will take you behind this area too. We used a lot of hydranges, some interesting evergreens and some evergreen ferns.



Some of this plant material was already here such as this entrance to this side walkway. These are Susanquia's that when in bloom are a cherry red. They are always in bloom at Christmas time. The window just ahead is my kitchen window and I will share that view.






To the right of that walkway and behind the white Victorian iron bench.



The left side of that walkway. I already had some old roses planted here called Pink Pet. We added several hydrangeas and azalea's.



This is directly under my kitchen window. I had bought these iron fencing pieces that we used at my daughter's wedding last year which was an outdoor garden wedding and we decided to do a little recycling. I love the way they look here. With a two story house it needed some immediate heighth. We used more everygreen ferns and lace cap hydrangea.



Going down the walkway back towards the front of the house.






It's a newly planted young landscape but it has lots and lots of potential.There have been areas left for me to put annuals and I am looking forward to the Fall when I can plant some Heirloom Daffodils, some Tulips and some more blooming perennials. We have reached the point in our summer that it is too hot and humid to be planting anything in our area. We just got all of this planted in time. The rest will have to wait but that is how I have been spending most of my time the past couple of months and I am pleased with it's progress. I think it definitely has an English feel to it.

I am joining Susan this week for Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch. Please take a look at other participants by clicking here.