Happy Saturday friends! Fall is the perfect time to get the lawn and garden cleaned up and ready for winter. It is also a great time to plant new  trees, evergreen shrubs and perennials.  This past week my husband did some much needed work on our landscaping which included digging up some old established and crowded bushes and finding new spots for them. He also planted some new trees and shrubs and prepared to make a new path on the side of our house. Today I am sharing how things are coming along so far.

Ever since we moved here five years ago we have been planning to add some privacy trees and shrubs to the left side of our house which closely borders our neighbor’s property. Time has passed so quickly and it just seemed we never had the time to do it. Last weekend we were at Lowe’s looking for mums when we came across an amazing sell on trees, shrubs and plants for 50% off.

We chose a variety of arborvitae shrubs and trees, as well as a few junipers and an azalea. Since the weather was perfect for planting with a chance of rain for the next several days afterward, we decided the timing was right to proceed with the project! Finally!!! When we got home from Lowe’s I started making some dinner, and before I knew it my husband had already started digging up old bushes and setting out the new plants, so I didn’t really get any good “before” pictures. The photos I am sharing today are still of the work in progress however, so there will still be some nice “after” pictures for comparison once we finish up.

The landscaping in front of our house ended at the edge of our porch in the mid- right corner of this photo where the garden light is. We wanted to continue the landscaping in an l-shape to form a natural privacy border at the left side our house. The arborvitae will grow much larger and wider. They are planted so that they will touch each other when fully grown which will provide privacy. Since our neighborhood is in the middle of a small natural forest, the use of evergreens is a perfect choice.  The decision to move a hosta to this new area was not a good one however! The deer from the forest across the street have already discovered it and not much is left!

The spindly holly in the top left corner is a group of shoots that came apart when my husband dug up an old holly and moved it to another spot in our landscape. We are not sure if it will make it, but if it does it will be nice in this spot since there are two other hollies beside it. There was an Annabelle hydrangea here, but each year after it’s initial bloom in late May it never looked healthy. It also was encroaching on an adjacent holly so we decided to transplant it to the back yard to see if it might do better. By the way, I have no idea what is up with our grass! Normally it is so pretty, lush and green, but over the last month it has gotten sparse with lots of brown patches. I am wondering if it has been all the unseasonably hot weather interspersed with days and days of rain. We may have to look into lawn care services for help.

We have decided to add a gravel path with pretty stepping stones leading from the front yard to the side of the house. We never really go over on this side since it is so close to the neighbor’s property. Without a path it is has been hard to access due to what was probably originally a shared driveway which now belongs to the neighbor. Having a little path from our front yard will lead us right around the side of our house without having to walk in the neighbor’s driveway. In the picture below you will see where the path will connect from where it starts and will continue on around the side of the house.

My husband removed all of the old plants, ivy, weeds, etc that were growing here and put down heavy duty landscape weed barrier. The large rocks are original to the property and kind of cool so we decided to keep them. As you can see this are definitely needs some TLC. It has been way down on the bottom of the to-do list since we never really needed to use this side of our house. We have a large and attractive yard on a corner lot on the other side of our house where our patio and deck are, and a good sized back yard, but it will still be nice to get this area cleaned up  too. We also plan to paint the foundation of the house although I am still undecided on a color, and replace the windows. I will probably add a few little garden accessories or maybe a pretty bird feeder to give the path some character too,

We planted a couple of different varieties of junipers in front of the arborvitae. All of the landscape fabric will be covered with river rock from Lowe’s after all the planting is finished. We also have added some nice solar landscape lights along the border (also from Lowe’s). Looks like we forgot to remove a sticker!

My husband divided several of our existing liriope plants and used some of the divisions in the newly landscaped area. The border of liriope connects from this new landscaping all the way around the house.

Here you can see the liriope border in front of the hollies. He also decided to move them forward a bit since they were half way hidden under the hollies. This left some exposed dirt and mud messes,  so we will have to add some new landscape fabric and fresh gravel to this bed as well. We also have some pretty English ivy in this bed which grows up the brick on the porch which I love. There was a third holly bush here in the middle of these two which we took out and moved to the other side of the porch because it was entirely too crowded.  The holly bushes all need to be trimmed up too. Although you can prune many bushes and large shrubs such as Buddleia in the fall, hollies must be pruned in December once the plants go dormant.

This gorgeous mixed fall planter from Lowe’s contains an evergreen Elwood’s False Cypress. I am not sure how long it will survive in a container, but I am hoping it will do well until spring at least, then I can find another spot for it in the landscape or transplant it to a deep urn.

It’s mid-October and my ferns in urns are still going strong! I also purchased the ferns at Lowe’s back in the May.

We dug up the struggling hosta and replaced it with an azalea just behind the burgundy coral bells.  Another juniper was planted on the right side of the porch to add continuity with the new landscaping and to provide some evergreen interest.

I purchased a second mixed container with the Elwood’s False Cypress for this perfectly chippy old urn. My hopes are to keep the cypress in the urn for a few years at least.  Our window boxes have been empty for a while, so when I saw the Dwarf Alberta Spruces for only $4 a piece I decided to use them in the boxes at least through winter. Tomorrow I plan to dress up the boxes for fall by adding some burlap, pansies, and a few small gourds to give the boxes a fall feel. After Thanksgiving I will some Christmas touches such as red berries and pine cones.

At 50% off we got such an amazing deal on all of these beautiful trees and shrubs that we decided to pick up a few more for the landscaping next to the patio on the side of our house. Here you can see a bit of how the herb bed was looking just last week. When we first moved in I deliberately planted mint in this area because I wanted it to sprawl and take over (which it certainly did!) but every summer by July it starts looking a little too wild and of course the flower bed is just empty and plain all winter and spring.

We are absolutely loving this landscape refresh on the side yard by the patio and how it ties in with the front yard landscaping. It will be so nice all year round with very little maintenance! We still need to add some more solar lights and refresh the gravel but overall it is a hug improvement. Scarecrow Joe is watching over the new plants to scare away any hungry or curious critters!

Well friends, this wasn’t the most “pinworthy” post, but I am excited to document our little landscape refresh here on the blog. Even though these aren’t completely “before” pictures, there is still quite a bit of work to-do with putting down new gravel, stepping stones and hopefully getting the lawn back in shape. Our goal is to have all of the new gravel down, the stepping stones added to the path, and all of the lights in place before Thanksgiving. I plan to share an update as soon as all that is finished. We also purchased tulips and daffodils bulbs to plant this week, so it will be exciting to see how all of this looks in the spring too.

If you are looking to do some landscaping, head to Lowe’s as quickly as possible. Deals on evergreens won’t last long! Are you planning to do any fall landscape work? I love hearing from you dear readers!

Thanks for visiting today!

Amber

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