A different type of garden
Matt and I have started on a new adventure this week. After living in our new house for a year and a half, we have decided it is finally time to take on the front lawn landscaping. While we are pretty competent food gardeners, neither of us have any experience with this type of work. But as Matt says, “people do this every day”. So, we have decided to rip out the existing, unpleasant landscaping and replace it with an herb garden and flower garden.
In front of our house we have two landscaped areas: one containing 7 euonymus bushes and 2 bushes of undetermined variety and another containing various small ornamental plants. We spent a few hours Saturday & Sunday afternoons digging out the bushes. I ripped out the 7 euonymus bushes myself and let me tell you, that is hard work! Now the front of our house stands mostly bare waiting for us to make decisions about what plants to put back.
Unfortunately, it seems making the decision about what to plant in the flower garden portion may be more difficult than actually ripping the plants out. I know for sure I want tulips and hyacinths (already purchased actually) but beyond that we are mostly unsure. I want a lot of color, a mix of flowers and ornamental plants, and a garden that looks good through at least three seasons. Not much to ask for I know. We have started to do some serious research online and have scouted out some other potential plants at Lowes, including some cherry bushes we think would look gorgeous in the area just in front of door. However, there is still a lot of work to do before we can put anything back.
I will catalog the process here to share the ups and downs of taking on landscaping for the first time.
May 2nd, 2010 at 10:30 pm
I have torn out old bushes before. After digging and cutting and digging to get rid of the root system there was some serious whacking with an ax. We even considered drilling a hole in the core and pouring salt in rather than actually pulling the whole thing out.