First of all, the outpouring of kindness and support that you guys showed to our family yesterday is both humbling and amazing. Thanks for the helpful words of encouragement and for sharing your stories. But enough with the heavy stuff. How about something light and fluffy? Let’s go on a looooong overdue photo tour of our yard (a la Katie B’s), shall we?
You’ve gotten a few select glimpses of what we’re working with in this post about our carport/driveaway, this post about our “alley”, and this one about the magnolia out front. But there’s plenty more to show (that’s your warning that this post will be photo-heavy – so much so that it took me three weeks just to muster the energy to finally edit down the 100+ pics that I snapped a couple of weekends ago and write this beast of a post).
So let’s start somewhere familiar – the front yard (as sort of pictured in our header).
It’s smaller than our last house’s front yard (i.e. the house is closer to the street) which I see as a good thing because there’s less grass to mow. Sah-weet. Actually, there are enough bush-borders, areas of groundcover, and that big dirt circle under the magnolia that ensure there isn’t too much grass at all. Of course we have some long term plans to transform our house’s curb appeal and pretty much every square foot of yard that we have (just like we did slowly and steadily over 4+ years at our last house) but as for specifics, we’re not quite there yet. But it should be fun to see where we end up in a few years.
Our general plans for the front are mainly to make it feel more open and inviting to the front porch. Like our last house, there are lots of borders of bushes (mostly boxwoods and azaleas) that act as a natural fence around the grassy area seen above. But in our opinion, it just means a lot of visual interruption – especially when it comes to feeling welcomed towards the front door. We’ve also always felt that short squat houses like ranches look best with some open area and lower and more varied plantings than walls of large shrubs (so there aren’t a bunch of things in front of the house to dwarf it even more).
No one really uses our front door now (unless they’re selling something). In fact even FedEx uses the side door in our carport to drop things off. We can’t really blame ’em because the front pathway is so narrow that it doesn’t really say “walk this way.” I actually had to trim some bushes on move-in day just to fit furniture through (it didn’t help that the bushes were also dusted with snow). Since the path is such a nice natural continuation to the sweet paver stones that they used to create the driveway, we’d love for it to at least look like it’s usable someday – even if everyone still goes to the carport.
So we’re thinking that trimming back / removing / transplanting some of these bushes above in favor of some lower profile landscaping will help open up the entrance on both sides of the path. Which will hopefully make it feel more inviting and show off our full-of-potential front porch (which we also have plans to pimp as we go).
But as much as bush-borders are a theme on our property, it doesn’t compare to the sheer volume of liriope (aka “monkey grass”) that you can find around here. Just check out the sloped area on this side of the front yard. Yup, it’s above that stone wall and below it, about 10+ plants deep:
This particular sea of liriope is actually kinda welcome because it makes for a virtually self-sustaining spot of landscaping, though it would be nice to add a bit more color to it at some point. But we’re not über-focused on that area because we’re so distracted / confounded by the area next to it. Yes, this big wild spot of leaves and tall grasses next to that stone wall and brick path is still our property.
This is the area that separates our house from our neighbors to the left (as you face the house). And I must say that we really appreciate the breathing room. Which reminds me – I should point out that this lot is surprisingly similar in size to our last house (almost an acre), BUT this lot is kinda square whereas our last house was a long skinny rectangle – with about half of it being woods in the back.
(Imagine a nice little whole-yard sketch here- I’ll have to whip one up in a future post).
The “pro” of our new squarer lot is that it puts more space between us and the next door neighbors (instead of just including a seemingly endless dense and thick woods in the back of the house). But the “con” is that instead of having a maintenance-free forest hidden in the back, we get “wild” spaces like this one shown above instead… which is visible from the street, btw. We’re not 100% certain, but we’d love to naturalize this area even more so it looks lush and semi-foresty instead of oddly bare but not quite tended to (tall grasses and wildflowers come to mind along with more large trees and shrubs). No rush though, we’ll figure it out someday…
And even though our lot is much less long and skinny than our last one, we still have plenty of raw un-landscaped area in the back. Actually, we have a ton of it. Sidenote: can you believe that’s the back of our house? Thanks to the addition it’s so different from the front (we think the peak is so charming) but someday we hope to bring some peaks into the front of the house and paint the hardboard siding (and possibly the brick) to make it feel more cohesive. But that might be five years down the line or even further. Gotta think long and hard about big changes like that to make sure we don’t do anything hasty that we’ll regret hate with a passion down the line.
Apparently this expanse used to be more heavily wooded, but somewhere along the line it was cleared and now it just sits as a leaf depository. Total bummer because we loved the private wooded feeling beyond the grassy part of our first house’s backyard.
The old John & Sherry would just thrown down some grass seed to make the entire area look more finished, but we’ve sort of outgrown our “let’s grow grass everywhere” phase (thanks in part to reading the Organic Lawn Care Manual last year). So our current plan is to keep this portion of the backyard “wild” so it’s one less area that we need to maintain/mow/water/weed/otherwise tend to. We plan to slowly plant fast growing evergreens that will create some nice privacy and bring back that wooded feeling that we love. Because there’s already enough landscaped backyard to maintain for our tastes. Behold…
Overall, we think the backyard is super charming. Which is a bit surprising considering how much we didn’t enjoy having pathways-lined-by-bushes everywhere in our last house’s yard. I think the key difference is that these pathways are brick, not pea gravel (which was a weeding NIGHTMARE). Though they obviously could use a quick pass with the leaf blower. But see those round planting beds on either side of the path the branches from left to right in the photo above? Those are goners. Sherry thinks that planting grass there to create more of an unobstructed area for pooch running and kid playing (especially when the offspring is older and excited to play tag or have races or play running bases) it’ll be nice to phase out a few of those small areas that break up that lush green grass. So we’re thinking that the brick paths can stay but the round beds will go.
And even though the low-profile liriope border along the path is an improvement over the big obstructive boxwoods in our last backyard, we’re not crazy about it – especially the fact that it’s 3 or 4 plants deep in many places. It just makes the paths feel narrower and more closed in. And since we’ve always preferred more organic transitions (vs. heavy distinct borders) we’ll probably dig up a lot of the monkey grass eventually (or we’ll post one of those you-dig-it-and-it’s-yours ads on craigslist) and just grow grass right up the edges of the brick paths for a more flush and clean look.
Liriope isn’t the only border going on back here, though. We’ve got more stone borders than you can shake a stick at (which would probably break your stick, btw).
Sherry’s not a fan of them visually (too interruptive for her tastes) and I’m not a fan of having to break out the weed-whacker to trim the grass against them. I could learn to live with them in some places (like where they make a distinct break between the grassy yard and the wild leafy abyss behind). But other places – like this little tree in the middle of the grass – are a bit too disruptive (Sherry wants to transplant that guy into the woodsy back part of the yard anyway to de-clutter the grassy area a bit more anyway).
One thing is for sure- all of those stone borders are a pain in my arse when I’m mowing.
(Yes, I’m using my gas-powered mower and not my push mower for the back, since it only really works well on long, straight yards – which the back sadly isn’t).
Now that we’ve covered the front, side, and back yards – let’s move around the house to one last spot that we recently mentioned in this post (you can see how much older the pics are in this post by clicking over to that one for more lush leaves and stuff). It sits behind our carport, just off our sunroom and gets called everything from “Liriope Heaven” to “Burger’s Bathroom.” Here’s the view of it from the carport:
For Burger, it’s perfect. It’s fenced on all sides, completely visible from the house and has plenty of curious spots to sniff / mark… and even a little zen lawn ornament.
As we’ve mentioned a few times, we’d love to continue our liriope-removal party over here (can you tell I’m trying to psyche myself up by calling it a “party?” – maybe putting it all up on craigslist is the way to go) and then we’ll be DIYing a stone patio (all by ourselves if all goes well) so we’ve got more usable outdoor living space. I’m sure Burger would argue that he’s getting plenty of use out of it now, but he got out-voted at the family meeting. Poor guy. But he loved lounging on our back patio at the old house so methinks he’ll be down with the plan in the end.
Right now our only outdoor entertaining space is this patio off of the sunroom and living room that isn’t even big enough for our grill (fyi, that patio furniture was left by the previous owners and yes, Sherry’s broken ceramic dog still sits sadly by the door).
The sunroom used to be some sort of outdoor space before it was enclosed, actually. You can even still see the original brick staircase that used to lead up to it. Funny, right? Well, funny to you and me – so annoying to the wife. She just doesn’t understand how someone completely enclosed the sunroom and heated and cooled it and added a million outlets and a fan but didn’t take the time to remove those odd stairs. I suggested putting some potted plants on them but she thinks it’ll be too busy and cluttered looking so we’ll have to come up with some other plan. Someday.
All-in-all, we’re smitten with the outdoor spaces that we got with this house. None of them are perfectly “us” yet, but that’s probably why we’re so excited about them – there’s so much possibility and potential. Even if some of it is buried more deeply (under rows and rows of liriope for example).
We’re falling in love with our surroundings more everyday as things start to bloom and green up. Like our new Most Favorite Tree In The Universe – this maple that’s grafted so it has two different colored leaves. Yeah, that’s one tree. Nature rocks my socks.
Maybe we love it so much because it provides this awesome shot of color through the window of our guest room (which we catch a glimpse of every time we walk down the hall away from Clara’s room). This picture does not do it justice.
It’s actually a bummer I didn’t wait longer to take these pictures (three weeks from camera to post is inexcusable) because just yesterday our azaleas started to get some color on them. So rather than delay this post any longer by retaking and resizing all of these images (which might be another three inexcusable weeks), Sherry snapped a few flower shots for me to throw in here at the end. Ooooh…. ahhhh…..
Phew! Now that you’ve seen all of these “before” pictures of the yard – and now that the weather is starting to be consistently nice – we can start tackling some of those outdoor projects. Well, as soon as Sherry’s allergies calm down a bit (our car was so green with pollen last week that it looked painted). But she’s working that Netti Pot like a fiend. You’re welcome for that visual.
Update: Apparently this post was confusing (even to Sherry) so this updated post (complete with a sketch and a video) should help.
Kristina says
Can I just say how incredibly excited I was to see your reference to the game “running bases”?!?! I grew up in NY and that was a total summertime staple at the pool/park. I’ve since moved to California, and nobody from out has ever heard of that game! Glad to see the next generation of children will still be playing one of my favorite childhood games. :-)
YoungHouseLove says
Oh yeah- I’m a NJ slash NY kid we played it all the time! Such a great game.
xo,
s
Angela says
Just a quick comment on the stone lined tree. I agree with Sherry about them being disruptive. However, as a solution for now you could just simply dig a small trench around the rocks. This would allow the wheel of the lawnmower to get close enough to cut the grass with no weed-whacker needed! (Plus, it helps rainfall stay closer to the tree. Win=win)
Pamela says
Thanks for reminding me to pull out the Neti pot I bought at the end of the last allergy season!
I haven’t gotten out much into our yard yet but it’s our 3rd spring season in our home and I’m excited to implement some plans! Good luck with yours.
And P.S. I am just logging back on after a week a spring breakin’ it and I was very moved by your story yesterday…thanks for sharing and I’m so glad all is well.
Betsy says
Holy monkey grass batman!!! The previous owners of our house went wild with it, too… but I think you and John have us beat. (Which is really saying a lot.)
How do you guys plan on getting rid of it when you do? I ready somewhere that (1) garden centers sometimes buy this stuff if you pot it for them, and (2) once it’s out of the groung, if you put down sheets of old paper grocery store bags with mulch on top it prevents new growth. (Liriope is apparently close to impossible to get rid of!) I’m still psyching myself up to tackling the masses of monkey grass… such a huge project.
P.S. Did you know that monkey grass attracts mosquitos, too?
YoungHouseLove says
John uses the stick a shovel under it and jump on it technique (it pops right out) but we might post a you-dig-it-and-it’s-yours ad on Craigslist since people have told us it’s in demand, especially if offered for free!
xo,
s
Carla D. says
Your house and yard are dreamy … everything is just so incredibly charming. I don’t like heavily landscaped and “controlled” yards and surroundings, so I’m glad you’re leaving large parts of your huge yard wild. With cute trails and unexpected things here and there, it’s going to be like an enchanted forest. What fun it’ll be watching what you do with the outside of your home.
Caitlin says
Lovely!
Are you sure that maple’s actually a crossbreed though? It looks spliced.
YoungHouseLove says
Yup, we didn’t know the term (have since updated the post). It was grafted according to a few expert readers. Sorry, we didn’t know the word!
xo,
s
Sassy Apple says
Not sure what the sun exposure is on the ‘forgotten steps,’ but it looked like a sweet spot for a miniature terraced herb garden. Just a thought….
Kymberly says
Maybe enclose the stairs with a box and use it for garden storage?
YoungHouseLove says
Ooh that’s a new one. Always a possibility!
xo,
s
Laci Waner says
I pre-apologize for the completely unsolicited advice, but if you have a sinusitis component to your sniffles at all, try sinu-orega. I almost wrote that you should read about it first, but then I remembered to whom I am typing. Like ya’ll would do anything without reading about it first! ;-) Also LOVE the post and landscaping potential!
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, thanks for the recommendation. Off to read about it. Haha.
xo,
s
r8chel says
Wow – you sure have your work cut out for you! But I think those little brick steps are 100% charming. You should definitely use them for potted flowers, maybe a little stool or bench, etc.
Jen says
The randomness of the narrow pathways and all the bushes/trees reminds me of the book Secret Garden, which I loved when I was a little girl. :)
Sara says
Your favorite tree in the universe – it looks like it’s a japanese maple that has reverted to a regular maple (I’m thinking red maple). Which happen to cultivated trees every once in a while, and it is pretty spectacular to see. I once saw a dwarf alberta spruce revert to a norway spruce – a little 4′ tall conical tree, with a 20′ tall Frankenstein-like open spruce growing from its side. The interesting thing is that is how cultivated trees are sometimes found – “sports” of a native tree that has unusual growth and then is propagated for the masses.
Sara says
The answer to your stone edging problem (VERY prevalent here in Richmond) is spade cutting the edges of your planting beds. No weed whacking!
YoungHouseLove says
Yes! We did that at the last house and loved the clean look!
xo,
s
Anna See says
What a great yard! I can just see Clara having a ball running down those paths on an Easter egg hunt!
Christine says
I meant to post this here, but posted it on Sherry’s sewing post by mistake. So here it is AGAIN:
Yes the stairs are really weird, but the best, possibly temp, solution I could think of is to build a potting table over them. Then you can stack all your pots and bags of soil etc, underneath. I think that could look really nice in that odd, cold, little spot.
SaraD says
I too have more than enough stone borders in my yard. The neighbor recalls the previous owner being very excited about an ad in the paper from the county telling everyone to pick up some rock from a busted up quarry. Stone borders in front, on the sides, along the driveway, a path down the middle of the FRONT yard, along the back fence line. I HATE the rock.
I’m actually working up the courage to do one of your you-dig-it-and-it-is-yours posts on Craigslist for the rock. Think it would work?
YoungHouseLove says
Yes I do. You’d be amazed what people will take when it’s free!
xo,
s
Julie W says
Have you thought about brick stain instead of painting the brick? It doesn’t come in as many colors as paint but it goes on like paint and has no maintenance issues, unlike paint.
Julie W says
Oh and Sara Richardson stained the brick on the house on Sara’s House in season 2. She just rolled it on and didn’t stain each little brick.
YoungHouseLove says
I’ve thought about that a few times! I just have to research it a little more an hopefully find a color that will work with our existing brick. But you know I love Sara Richardson so it’s awesome to hear that it worked for her. Off to google around for pics!
xo,
s
Julie W says
You can see what she does here http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv-sarahs-house/videos/index.html and it is the second to last episode called curb appeal.
I have also been searching for a brick stain I like because our brick looks like pee. Well it is pee colored. It is actually a brick that is used on all of the city buildings and some old churches in my small historic town and looks wonderful with all of the architecture but my house has none of that. It is a small pee colored rectangle.
YoungHouseLove says
Insanely amazing! Thanks so much for sharing the link. That Sarah Richardson is a magician!
xo,
s
jenn says
I havent yet finished reading your post but I needed to let you know before I quickly forget, since this is such a dire piece of information I must share… In regards to your liriope removal party. I think calling it a party is exactly the right attitude to take! This past semester (i’m probably one of your younger readers) I had a professor who loving referred to our tests as “celebrations of learning”. He’d remind us to bring our party essentials, namely #2 pencils. But nevertheless it add a fun somewhat casual vibe to the entire class. So my advice to you both, when it comes to the LRP (liriope removal party) don’t forget your party essentials! Okay, back to finish reading your post.
Shannon Hoving says
I have a serious case of driveway envy. Paver stones? Yes, please!
YoungHouseLove says
Yes, we got so lucky to inherit those! The realtor told us it was a 15K driveway. Ca-razy! But so appreciated!
xo,
s
Lauren says
Your steps to nowhere remind me of my house! Steps to a door that was closed up! So what did the previous homeowners do? Paint the door a contrasting color and put an arbor around it and hang a fern from the arbor! Heaven forbid you take the steps out and try to make it blend in!! It was the tackiest thing I’ve ever seen…but we bought the house anyway :)
Cindy says
You’ve got a lot of options. Don’t get rid of the liripe; recycle it. Border your naturalized area with it; it will help keep the leaves contained in the naturalized area in the fall. If you want more trees in the naturalized area take a look at camellias and gardenias as both keep their leaves during the winter months and provide blooms in season. Some camellias bloom in the spring and some bloom in the fall – usually in pinks, reds and white but there are also variegated blooms. Gardenias usually bloom only once a year but the fragrance is unbelievable. Redbud and dogwoods (pink or white) would also do well in your naturalized area. For your shadey areas take a look at huechera (coral bells), astilbe and ferns. They come back every year. The coral bells in particular have a spiky bloom but the foliage can be spectacular – from lime green to caramel color. If you don’t want to remove the extra steps near the sunroom, build long windowboxes with herbs or annuals to avoid the “too busy” look of a lot of pots.
Glad to see that ana-white.com was able to “inspire” your console. Great job.
bfish says
The little tree ringed by rocks that Sherry wants to move back into the woods appears to be a Japanese umbrella pine. The umbrella pine is a desirable specimen plant and one that size would cost close to $100 in a nursery (in the Richmond area, don’t know about elsewhere). So please treat it with love when you move it and place it where it gets some sun.
For the brick paths that you keep, I’d recommend leaving the liriope borders on one side, between the path and the lawn. They do provide some barrier to weed seeds getting between the bricks (it appears that bricks are dry-laid and not mortared; if the latter however never mind this suggestion!).
Definitely offer the dig-your-own liriope for free; there are at least as many people like you guys trying to get rid of it as there are people who want to plant it. OTOH, if you eliminate boxwoods in the front you will get some takers on Craigslist who will pay to dig them up. Think about a little bit of extra cash to buy the plants that suit you as you bring your lovely garden to the next level.
Kim says
Ok this is not even the main point of this post (I lurve your backyard and plans btw) BUT I am a total allergy sufferer as well! When I’m in dire straits like throat closing level, I’ll resort to medications (Zyrtec-D + Flonase = miracle) but if it’s just mildly bad I am ALL about the Neti Pot. So here’s my kind of gross question: What do you do when one side of your nose is so stuffed that the water won’t flow?
I usually just do the “open” side and try a few times but if the “closed” side won’t budge I just give up and breathe through the open side. But it still drives me crazy if I’m trying to sleep! Any tips? maybe even a Neti Pot post? hmm maybe too much for some people…
YoungHouseLove says
I have the sane issue sometimes! So glamorous. Haha. I just try it even if I’m blocked because the salty water is supposed to help a little even if it can’t flow all the way. But I agree, it’s so annoying and hard to sleep. Boo pollen!
xo,
s
Allison says
Just had to say I love the little stairs. I think a random assortment of colorful pots & plants (or all white different sizes/ textures…like your hallway photo wall, but with pots!) would be funky & utilize the existing space.
Knocking down brick attached to your foundation could get hairy!
Thx for including us in your house & lives!
Handy Man, Crafty Woman says
wow, that is a lot of landscaping to deal with!! So much work, but I know you’ll do a great job.
we have some HUGE landscaping projects to do around here this spring/summer…
Jo says
I commend you for keeping some of the back area as wild – I therefor highly recommend that you take the time to research what are local native tree species for your particular area (instead of simply picking fast growing species). It would be cool to plant a mix of indigenous trees…
YoungHouseLove says
We definitely plan to bring in a lot of local plants and trees that’ll be low maintenance and thrive in our area!
xo,
s
Jill says
I hate liriope. I am going to start a Facebook page, will you join? Ha.
Jill says
Oh and maybe one for Netti Pot- aka my Drown-me-in-pollen savior. Can’t breathe without it!!
YoungHouseLove says
Yes and yes. Haha.
xo,
s
Lisa says
I know this is random but there was a blub in the NY Times today about a study U Conn did about local honey helping seasonal allergies. Neither the local honey nor the commercial honey group did any better than the placebo group. So, looks like there is a reason the honey doesn’t help. Boo.
YoungHouseLove says
Oh man. I thought I might be doing it wrong. Haha.
xo,
s
Kim says
The bushes and shadows in the third picture look like a whale!
YoungHouseLove says
Haha- I totally see it!
xo,
s
Katie C. says
You have bleeding heart flowers! I am so obsessed with them! :)