I decided to start one of these up too...maybe it will give me some motivation and possible help on what to do with my disaster of a yard i bought along with my house (circa 1924) last year.


Here are just some starting photos:

this is the front before i touched it at all


This is the side where my driveway is--fairly overgrown


Back yard (notice the HUUUGE cherry tree RIGHT next to the house...we took that down last year)




(more to come..waiting for them to load into my computer..)

retaining wall in the front

i put in a flower bed on the far side next to the driveway..and hopefully tomorrow plan on doing the other side i will probably add some more pansies or some kind of bulbs in there as well i haven't decided yet. would love any input

in the flower bed i have 4 Pansies, one Lavender, one Erysimum 'Citrona' series Wallflower, and lastly a Dianthus. i have the same to go on the other side but the section is a bit longer so i may need to pick up something else.

i tore out the bushes on the front right side of my house and after 4-5 months of being torn out the weeds started to creep in...haha
before:

the work I did today (still a work in progress) there are two azaleas in there growing back after i cut them down last year so i have to start getting some plants to go in there...any ideas?? the things by t he mailbox are either tulips or lillies...i haven't seen them flower yet but i transplanted them so they are all together..they were spread around before.

Your home is cute. I love the huge front porches. I wish I was not on my phone so I Could see better! I think if u built some beds on the top of the front retainer walls and put in some low creeper/ hanging over plants it would be cute. I love my lanvender plant as well as primrose, it spreads like crazy! My sage plants also take up a tone of room and smell great. I would put in a med size flowering bush in the cornor by your front steps or a weeping small tree. I suck with names of things unless I have the tag. I'm gonna have to come back to this when I'm off my phone.

Awesome! You have a nice huge backyard and so much gardening potential! My head is bursting with ideas for flowers but I'm not sure what you can grow there.

What zone are you in again?

What were you thinking of putting in? Trees (flowering?), flowers, shrubs (flowering?), ground cover?

Also how much lighting (sun/shade) do the different areas get?

Btw, how do your dianthus do up there? I am seriously considering putting some dianthus in some of my flower beds...still on the fence about them. They do look simply stunning!

jbealer wrote:

Your home is cute. I love the huge front porches. I wish I was not on my phone so I Could see better! I think if u built some beds on the top of the front retainer walls and put in some low creeper/ hanging over plants it would be cute. I love my lanvender plant as well as primrose, it spreads like crazy! My sage plants also take up a tone of room and smell great. I would put in a med size flowering bush in the cornor by your front steps or a weeping small tree. I suck with names of things unless I have the tag. I'm gonna have to come back to this when I'm off my phone.

i would love to put in a small weeping tree in there. i have a little volunteer dogwood off to the side of the bed (not pictured because i haven't gotten over that far and its embarrassing...haha) im definitely letting that grow because i love dogwoods and they can be difficult to grow...at least thats been my parents luck. in the back corner of the steps and the porch there is an azalea i trimmed down in hopes that it will grow and i can actually make it not look like a wild beast like it did before. there is one about 3 feet to the right of it in front of the porch as well. (you may be able to see the little stumps sticking up through the mulch when you can see them on a computer).

Huskyluv wrote:

Awesome! You have a nice huge backyard and so much gardening potential! My head is bursting with ideas for flowers but I'm not sure what you can grow there.

What zone are you in again?

What were you thinking of putting in? Trees (flowering?), flowers, shrubs (flowering?), ground cover?

Also how much lighting (sun/shade) do the different areas get?

Btw, how do your dianthus do up there? I am seriously considering putting some dianthus in some of my flower beds...still on the fence about them. They do look simply stunning!

as much as i'd LOVE to do with it money is always an issue for me unfortunately. so it is definitely going to happen over the course of a few years, haha. front yard is getting done before anything else since no one else can see the back yard but me for now. i am in zone 7. i LOVE LOVE LOVE weeping cherries so i definitely eventually want to put one of those in and i'd LOVE to have a japanese maple..but those are quite pricey. i like the idea of doing beds on the upper part of the retaining wall also (not only will it be easier to mow i'd like to hide the ugly concrete) i honestly have never gardened before, only helped my mom out previously, i will let you know how the dianthus do. the ones i got like zone 6...if i remember you're in zone 8? you may be able to find some that would work better for you with some research

Shannon,

You're in Roanoke?! Cheddar Pinks are a variety of dianthus that will do well and come back bigger a better every year in our area.
I'm in Forest (L'burg area)! We should get our dogs together sometime! Do you know others on the forum in Central VA?

Lisa

sounds like fun! Who else lives in our area? I have no idea. W have pretty nice dogpark here in roanoke

Huskyluv wrote:

Also how much lighting (sun/shade) do the different areas get?

I forgot to answer this. The side with my driveway only gets evening sun everywhere else except along the side of the fence where the swing set is gets full sun most of the day (the front moreso than the back of the house)

well here is what i planted today

i FINALLY got my weeping cherry i've been wanting forever and since i finally own my house i was able to plant one, i love them!


i planted some flowers in the bed up front: i've got Pansies, one Lavender, one Erysimum 'Citrona' series Wallflower, a Dianthus, a couple of Flox, and a couple of Dusseldorf Prides.




and i planted 2 more pansies in the retaining wall bed:

im thinking about doing beds on the top of the retaining wall strickly for flox and ground covery type stuff to flow over the wall...what do you guys think?

It looks nice. I like the idea of beds on the top of the retaining wall. Have you considered Hostas along your shady driveway?

Yeah I think im going to get some clippings from my parents they have a bunch of them

Looks great and I love the ideas. Hosta look wonderful, I just planted some of my own for the first time a few days ago. Love the colors you've got going on there.

snrose wrote:

im thinking about doing beds on the top of the retaining wall strickly for flox and ground covery type stuff to flow over the wall...what do you guys think?

Phlox is lovely, I love it. How about trailing verbena to flow over the wall? Today I bought some trailing Homestead Purple Verbena which is hardy to zone 6. My neighbor has it in her yard as well and it had gorgeous deep purple blooms all winter long despite several nights that temps dipped down in the teens. Maybe a creeping sedum could be a possibility.

verbena looks really nice i am definitely going to have to look into that. i need to find a good nursery around here..

Oh, im going to plant a rose of sharon along the back of my fence and let it spreaaaaaaaadddd (cause its a super invasive shrub) but i want to just fill that area in so nikki stops digging along it hopefully haha. they have gorgeous flowers though!

Very pretty flowers!!!
I can't wait to see your landscaping progress in the next couples months also!

here is what I got today: thank you family dollar! i was so excited when i went there and saw they had almost everything i was looking for today! aaaand i saved a lot of money haha. (especially on the hostas! each of those bags was only $2.50!)...(sorry for the poor quality cell phone pics)

Awesome pick up! The Hosta you got looks like what I picked up too from looking at the picture on the package, I bought 5 of them and will have to check the package to see if it's the same kind. I also got 60 of the mixed gladiolus like you got too!

Girl, you're making me want to go shopping for plants. Must...not...go...shopping!

Walmart has similar packs of roots and bulbs in packs of 5 for $5.

You must share some before and after pics and tell use where you're going to plant all that stuff! You're making me jealous!

the box of the shade mix and impatiens went along the back of my house where i have a GIANT tree stump/exposed root. it actually looks kind of cool! i'll take a picture of the bed tomorrow and then after the flowers start to come up. the tree was a cherry tree so i am finding seedlings everywhere...and the soil is just so incredibly fertile from the fruit over the many many years it was there. i was digging through the dirt back there and found a cute little butterfly stepping stone someone had put there at some point. i cleaned it up and put it in the bed by the mailbox out front. will take a picture of that also tomorrow.

the alyssum i'm not sure yet where i want to put those. i will have to put more thought into that. the morning glorys i'm putting on the right side of my house next to the bg crepe myrtle to grow up the side of my lattice on the porch. it gets enough sun for them, the other side does not. the wildflower mix meant for sunny areas i'm thinking about putting temporarily out front against the retaining wall until i get the money and time to put in another bed. everything else is going in the backyard up against the fence in some area just to bring some color..its so drab back there. gardening gets expensive when you're the only one putting out for it! haha


i put the hostas along this wall (after cleaning up a bit) luckily the beds already had really good soil in them from someone planting there at one point. eventually i'd like to put an edge around the driveway and regravel it. up against the fence is really a tough call...there is a gate there so i cant really plant anything. i'm thinking maybe some shade loving grass since i get practically no sun over there at all.
i'm really excited to see my hostas come up that side of the house is just sooo ugly. there are two bushes i trimmed down that were severely overgrown when i moved in. so much so we could barely use the driveway. i have no idea what they are.

Here is where i planted the impatiens and wildflower shade mix (i know my grass is in HORRIBLE and embarassing shape---haha)

Can't wait to see when the flowers start popping up! Waiting stinks though...I'm in that boat too.

ugh sunday's weather...i hope it doesn't kill my flowers! a high of 38 and a low of 34 with 90% chance of rain!!! ewwww..

on another note here is my front bed..its doing great! one of the phlox is just blooming away like nobodies business its great. the other is having some trouble (they were on clearance..haha)



i'm trying to figure out what these are...anyone have ideas?

bush out front: **edit: found out it's a "Hellebore"


tree next to my house: **edit: pussy willow


little viney thing on the other side...haven't seen it bloom yet so i'm not sure

Shannon,

The tree is a Pussy Willow. Cute! The vine may be a Clematis. You could Google Clematis and see if the leaf looks like that. I think a Clematis leaf is broader than that leaf, but I guess different varieties may have slightly different shaped leaves. I don't know that bush but it's really pretty and spring-blooming is nice!

I think your plants will be fine in the cold this weekend. The pansies will thrive in those temps and, unless your seeds have sprouted, they will be fine too. Stuff like the phlox and dianthus are perineals and tend to be a little hardier.

Lookin' good!