Who watches Jersey Shore? Remember when they went camping and Deena stood on that picnic bench and shouted “the wilderness!”? For some reason it always cracks me up. I’m from Jersey, so maybe it’s a you-have-to-be-from-there thing. Anyway, we had a long list of outdoor projects planned for spring, so let’s dive in. Remember how our yard looked when we bought the house?
Since then we’ve limbed up the magnolia, transplanted or removed a lot of overgrown bushes, and even painted the front door — all small changes that made a big difference. The progress so far is obvious, but it’s still not where we want it to be. We apologize to our neighbors too often for weedy patches and sad flowers by the mailbox. When a LivingSocial deal popped up for a one-hour consultation with certified landscape designer Katherine Brooks for $60 (down from $125), we jumped on it.
It might seem odd for two DIY lovers to pay someone for advice, but we’re the kind of gardeners who kill houseplants with kindness. A pro who can tell us which plants will thrive, what to transplant, and how to reconfigure beds is worth the cost. Five minutes into the visit Katherine pointed out that we’ll never get grass to grow under the magnolia’s root circle — the shallow roots crowd out turf. We had planned to seed the area in spring and fall, so her advice saved us the cost and frustration of trying to grow grass where it won’t survive. She offered a better alternative: groundcover that tolerates those conditions.
She also recommended lists of plants for specific parts of the yard, suggested transplants (we’re all for reusing what we have), shared sustainable landscaping tips for our region, and helped us reconfigure beds. She even used a marking sprayer to outline potential beds. Most useful: she identified many of our existing plants, so we can now look up care and transplanting advice. We left with a four-page plan scribbled in a notebook. Highlights included:
- Seed bare spots in the lawn right away where bushes were removed last fall.
- Plant American holly and sweetbay magnolia in the back to improve privacy.
- Use hosta, coleus, Kimberly fern, or small boxwoods in the porch planters.
- Remove ivy from the large oak trees over time to prevent damage.
- Transplant periwinkle — it’s one of the few groundcovers that will grow beneath the magnolia and can hide that circle of dirt.
Periwinkle transplanted around the base of the magnolia will help soften that bare area and tolerate the root competition.
- Replace crowded, struggling boxwoods and azaleas along the front path with appropriately sized perennials that won’t overgrow the walkway.
- Fill in bare foundation areas flanking the porch with plants suited to the lighting and space.
- Remove an odd rectangle of brick near the driveway in a planting bed so the symmetry of the landscaping improves.
- Use groundcover around the mailbox instead of high-maintenance flowers to keep it tidy without constant care.
- Plant trees along the side yard to transform a bare gully—suggestions included dogwoods, redbuds, river birches, and a few weeping willows.
- Move shrubs that crowd the patio path to the opposite side of the patio to improve access.
- Add more hydrangeas to balance the patio garden where one side is bare and the other has three healthy plants.
- Remove two diseased trees and a dead rhododendron near the patio.
- Take down large euonymus vines on the oak tree next to the patio — they’d grown heavy and could cause problems in storms.
- Sell removed cobblestones rather than keep them — they’re cumbersome to mow around and can be worth a few dollars each.
- Trim back ornamental grasses and butterfly bushes in March as part of annual maintenance.
- Plant aucuba along the left side of the house where there’s currently only dirt and weeds.
- And at least ten other more involved tasks that we’ll tackle one at a time.
It’s a long list, but experience from our first house’s slow curb-appeal transformation taught us these projects take time. The best approach is to take things one project at a time so they don’t feel overwhelming. One of the first priorities was planting around the house foundation: bare dirt and bricks don’t look good and invite weeds. We’d bought a LivingSocial nursery deal last fall that left us with $80 to spend before it expired, so we went to the nursery armed with Katherine’s recommendations.
The car ride was funny in hindsight — we’d removed the stroller from the trunk hoping to make room for lots of plants. At the nursery most shrubs were $25–$50 each, so we ended up leaving with two solid bushes instead of a carload. Plants are expensive, but they were a good start. Each shrub is roughly two feet wide now and will fill out over time. Buying larger, well-established plants can speed up the look you want, whereas tiny bargain plants sometimes take years to bulk up.
The shrubs we chose are Otto Luyken laurels, one of the foundation options Katherine suggested. They came with a one-year guarantee, so we’ll be able to replace them if they fail, but with recent rainy weather they seem to be settling in well.
We planted one laurel on the left garden bed next to the porch and the other on the right. Both beds will need at least five more plants each to reach the balanced, full look we’re aiming for.
One laurel got a roomy spot on the left side of the porch…
…and the other scored prime real estate on the right. We’ll document the beds as they fill in and share before-and-after photos as the project progresses. There’s still work to clear, including that strange brick platform next to the hose that looks like a job for a sledgehammer and a willing partner. What are you working on outdoors these days? Any new plants or flowers going in?