Front Yard Flowers

Yesterday I put on my brave girl pants and took a few pictures of the plants I put out front of our house. I always feel so silly taking pictures of my house! We don’t live on the busiest block in the village but there are enough neighbors to see me and wonder what in the heck I’m taking pictures for.

This is my favorite shot because it shows just about everything when you are at the side of my house. Of course the only people who get this view are me, Aidan and the mailman but it looks nice for us :)

That bush in the middle of the bed is going to be removed. It’s a burning bush that I bought many years ago; it turns bright red in the fall which is pretty but the novelty has worn off. It gets really big and is apparently invasive so we are waiting on a quote to have it replaced with a dwarf Japanese Maple. That would still give the red effect I love in the fall but would make the bed look a lot nicer. Plus it would be a lot less work.

As for the bed — right now there isn’t anything in it but the bulbs I planted in the fall, but look at them, I’m so proud! Tulips and hyacinths and a lot of them, too! Of course they would look better if we had fresh mulch down (and those bags of lawn soil weren’t there ha-ha) but we have to get the tree planted (if it’s affordable) so I don’t want to have to mulch twice.

Moving on, or over, to the stairs you can see all of the planters I filled and have been talking about. This is the first year that I tried the “thriller, filler, and spiller” approach and while it didn’t turn out as easy and successful as I was hoping I think they look pretty good for my first try. Also in my planters is a pot of decorative grass that should turn back to green soon but I’m not sure when or if I have to fertilize it to make that happen. I need to re-arrange the pots still but haven’t thought of it until looking at these photos.

After I took these photos Aidan moved the desk off of the porch and hung up my other two Boston ferns. I just love these ferns, especially hanging from the awning, I mentioned before that I stole the idea from a previous neighbor and it has been my best stolen idea yet.

We centered the other two over the left side where the seating area is and it totally changed how it feels out there. It feels really nice sitting on the porch! Woo-hoo! I’ve been here for 11 years and haven’t ever been excited to go sit outside.

I’ll talk about the seating area in a future post and show the actual porch once I have a few more things completed. I need to get the plants for the large planter I got for under the mailbox, order the new mail box and then get and install the new house numbers that we finally picked out. We also keep talking about the need of a new storm door and front door but I’m not sure when we will get to it. We also have painting to do and wood to replace, but for now it’s better than nothing :)

My porch isn’t fitted with any fancy seating but it is fitting for us. I’d love to get a nice set but it isn’t in the budget nor does it make sense since we will be moving in a few years and won’t know if it will fit at the new house. I’m really happy with how the front is coming along. It’s far from perfect but it’s definitely the best it’s ever been!