No? Me neither. But it’s coming — slowly but surely. After finishing the area to the right of the porch, the next spots on the to-do list were:
- the area to the left of the porch
- the side lot next to our house (a moist, low-lying stretch we want to naturalize into a pretty, low-maintenance forest)
Before we tackled the planting bed next to the porch, we wanted to share a glimpse of the side lot:
Okay, maybe “gorgeous” is a stretch. Those are old grass clumps we were advised to cut back each March so fresh growth will appear in spring. Early April became our March this year, and we were a little late — but we finally got to it. Now the wild side lot looks like this:
Viewed from the street, this is the area we want to naturalize with a cluster of trees, groundcovers, and ornamental grasses to create a woodsy, low-maintenance feel (so we don’t have to mow, weed, or rake constantly). You can see the trimmed grasses in the photo (four blue arrows point to them) — they’ll reach about 4–5 feet when they fill in. The circled spot on the left is a newly planted tree.
The first step toward naturalizing this moist valley was adding trees suited to those conditions. Our certified landscape designer suggested several varieties, including River Birch. When we found River Birch trees on sale at Home Depot for $19, we bought one (we used a $5 coupon from their free gardening club).
We followed the planting instructions on the label and hoped this tree would become the first step in turning a weed- and leaf-filled valley into a more intentional, natural area. We didn’t encounter any wildlife this time — no snakes — so that was a relief.
Next, we shifted focus to the garden bed left of the front porch, which was buried in leaves, missing some shrubs, and overrun with liriope:
We raked out the leaves…
…dug out the liriope…
…and planted an Otto Luyken laurel.
Our landscape consultant noted that the middle shrub wasn’t thriving, so we transplanted it to the wilder side yard we’re naturalizing, where it won’t be in the front-and-center spotlight. Here’s a tired-but-happy John mid-project:
After clearing, we were left with a much cleaner bed to work with:
From the other angle, you can see this bed is larger than the right-side bed — roughly 20 feet long and 7–11 feet deep.
To keep balance and ensure success in partial shade, we planted many of the same species used on the right side of the porch. We added three Garden Variegated Dead Nettle (the mounding variety, which stays 6–8″ wide and tall) and three Dwarf Pieris Japonica Variegated shrubs (about 2′ x 2′). The Pieris blooms with small white flowers in spring and stays leafy the rest of the year — it performs well in part shade and did great at our first house.
We chose groups of three because designers often recommend odd-numbered groupings; clustering similar plants gives them a stronger presence.
We spaced them according to the tags and how we expected them to look at maturity, then started digging.
For each plant we followed the hole size and soil amendment recommendations on the tag, adding nutrients and backfill as needed.
A few hours later, things were looking much better.
Photos don’t show aerial spacing well, but we left about 3–4 feet between plants and the house. That gives them room to fill in without becoming overcrowded in a few years.
They may look modest now, but we really love these shrubs. We learned the hard way that it’s better to invest in plants we truly like and place them thoughtfully so they thrive and look good long-term.
From left to right in the photo above: Otto Luyken laurel, Garden Variegated Dead Nettle, and Dwarf Pieris Japonica Variegated. All three bloom in spring, and the nettle continues into summer. There’s more of this larger bed left to finish, but we took a well-deserved break and finished with a layer of mulch to retain moisture and suppress weeds. The mulch ends where we still need to plant — that’s the next phase.
Here’s a reminder of what the area looked like before about six hours of raking, clearing, planning, digging, and mulching:
And here’s the area mostly completed — we’ll finish the smaller zone on the far left once our arms recover and we decide on the right plants:
Just for fun, here’s a photoshopped view of how everything should look at full size:
We like that this plan keeps the landscape clean without overwhelming our one-story house; large shrubs and trees planted too close to windows can make a ranch-style home look squat. We’ve checked a few items off our long list, but there are still plenty of outdoor projects to tackle before we can claim full curb appeal. We skipped a wide curb shot for now because ongoing work near the path, mailbox, and yard makes the whole view look worse before it gets better — expect updates in a future Petersiks Vs. Wild post.
In the meantime, what are you planting? Do you have a list of half-finished outdoor projects at your house? Sometimes it feels scattered, but progress adds up — inch by inch we’re getting closer to a noticeably improved curb appeal.
Psst — We’ve become a Hunger Games household. More on that over on Young House Life.