Remember when John met his frog—well, technically his toad—friend here?
Recently we made another neighborhood acquaintance: a little garter snake. We were nervous, but curious enough to snap a photo. Luckily he was harmless.
Most of our time outside lately has been focused on yard maintenance. We know transforming the exterior of a house takes time, so we break large projects into smaller, manageable phases. Our last house took about 4.5 years to evolve from a rough starting point…
…into a much more finished look.
Since we can’t overhaul everything at once, we focus on small wins. Here are a few recent outdoor projects we completed.
First up: refreshing the mailbox and house numbers with oil-rubbed bronze (ORB) spray paint. They were looking rusty and tired, so a few thin, even coats of ORB made a big difference.
John carried the mailbox back to the porch using these rubber pot holders because it had been sitting in the sun and was too hot to touch:
Up close it definitely needed some attention (and a good clean — I removed bird droppings with a wet cloth). I used my favorite ORB spray paint and applied multiple light coats, including to the rusted screws and our brass house numbers.
For drop cloths I often reuse large black plastic bags or old fabric so I don’t create extra waste. Everything dried by the end of the day, and I reattached the numbers. The mailbox looks refreshed and cohesive with the house now.
While I was up there I also took photos of the flowers since readers asked for updates. Here’s how they looked when we planted them:
And here they are now, beside the freshly painted mailbox:
The wave petunias have filled in nicely despite only being watered once after planting. They’re surprisingly drought-tolerant and look great in the front bed.
Even the neighborhood squirrel seems pleased with the progress.
We considered painting the mailbox post, but for now we like how the weathered wood blends into the landscaping. A landscape designer friend pointed out that a neutral post keeps attention on the yard rather than the mailbox itself, so we’re leaving it natural for the time being.
Another problem we admitted to earlier was an overgrown, neglected side yard. We tried letting it naturalize to match a neighbor’s lot, but it became unruly and drew comments from neighbors suggesting we mow before the homeowners association noticed.
The entire area in this photo is our lot, including the shaggy patch on the left:
Naturalizing can be a great low-maintenance landscaping strategy, but in our case it looked overgrown. We mowed a front strip to tidy the view from the road while leaving the slope below intentionally wild so we don’t have to mow or weed the incline.
John tackled the long, stubborn grass with the mower. It took patience and periodic clearing of clumped grass, but the difference was worth it.
Slowly but surely the front strip started to look intentional instead of abandoned:
We also planted three fast-growing evergreen trees in the backyard to add future privacy and to complement the trees we already planted on the side of the house.
We did a big weeding session as well. Some weeds were enormous — think dandelion-sized plants with shrub-like roots — so we dug them out. For the yard to become a woodsy, naturalized area, it still needs some selective clearing before it can look intentional.
Below is a snapshot of our ongoing outdoor checklist. We’ve crossed off several tasks and left others to tackle over time:
weed the side of the carport(done here with some mom help)limb up the giant magnolia(done here)build a side patio(done over the course of about four weeks here)weed, mulch & plant the embarrassingly unkempt mailbox area(done here)plant three fast growing evergreen trees on the side of our house for privacy(done here)make some mini porch updates(done here)upgrade the mailbox and our house numbers with some ORBplant three more fast growing evergreen trees in the back of our houseweed the side and back yard areas, so they naturalize with trees (not giant dandelions)- avoid snakes (so far so good)
- transplant the tree that’s planted on our house (seen here)
- remove or transplant bushes that block the front walkway and obscure the house, in multiple phases
- paint the front door
- frame out the round porch columns
- remove the scalloped porch header
- build raised garden beds in the back
- add a wood compost bin in the back (we currently use a simpler compost method)
Our plan is to tame the property a little at a time, in achievable phases, until the exterior finally feels like “ours.”
We’d love to hear how you approach yard projects: do you gut and rebuild all at once or take one project at a time like us? Have you encountered any surprise wildlife or oversized weeds in your landscaping adventures?