DIY House Projects: Front Yard Gardening

Well, this weekend I finally finished our front yard renovation. Well, finished for now... I'm sure you know how it is!

Let me remind you what the yard looked like before.

Granted this was taken at the very beginning of spring so the grass was really brown, there were no plants growing in the garden and the whole yard just looked super dead. 

Now, for the after...

                                           

So much better right?! The walkway made a huge difference but I think the gardens surrounding it just make the whole front yard look more welcoming. For right now I just have boxwoods lining the walkway but I do have plans to get more plants in here eventually. I love that the boxwoods will grow a ton and stay  green all year long. I also have a hydrangea plant in here all the way on the front left and I'm not sure it loves its home so I will keep monitoring it. 

All the other plants are ones that were planted here by the previous owners. I am not quite sure what everything is so I will continue to let them grow this year and see if there is anything I would like to rehire or replace. 

I never thought I would choose a black mulch but when I searched online for the best mulch for your house color it said black went best with gray homes. I think it does look really nice and I can't picture it working with a dark brown or red so I'm glad I went with the online advice. 

I'm not sure what to do with the plants in the gardens that were previously there. I did have a fairly difficult time getting mulch back behind the plants and I always squish one of them when I bring the hose around. I am not particularly attached to any of them and will definitely be looking for inspiration pictures on Pinterest to see what other people with ranch homes like mine do with the gardens in front of their homes. 

I also think that having either something like hostas along the walkway would be nice. Another idea is to have colorful annuals along the grass side. I'm not sure yet what I'm going to do and I don't think I will do anything until the fall or quite possibly next spring. I will definitely keep you updated though!

One last picture of the walkway gardens before we move onto the other garden I want to talk about today.

I know I talked about this garden before but Tim asked me to make it a little bigger on the tree side which makes it a bit easier for him to get around it on our lawnmower. I used our edger that we purchased at Home Depot to make sure it was lined up although once I put the mulch on the line became a little less straight. 

I love this little garden and can't wait to see the perennials and evergreens grow each year! The annuals I have in front have been great this year but I haven't decided what I will do here in the future. I do really like the coral and white color scheme but next year I am definitely going to add more annuals to fill it in a bit more. 

I am also excited to watch this tree grow every year! It is one of our only trees in the front yard and after seeing it bare all winter I am thrilled it has leaves and makes the yard look more alive!

This mulch pile was HUGE when I started and I got through a lot of it! We definitely overestimated how much we needed. It just means there is enough to get some other projects done!

One last area I threw some mulch down quick is this japanese maple tree that our sweet neighbors gave us.   We've never tried to grow a tree before so I hope that it survives! Fingers crossed!!

That's all for today, have a great day everyone!