If I could (I know I could) go back to school, I would get a degree or take a class–something! anything!–in landscape design. And/or computer science. And accounting. Ha! But really, I wish I knew more about landscape design and plants in general. It’s been a struggle and a fear for us since purchasing our last house. Fortunately, both of our homes had nice mature landscape–trees and shrubs galore. Unfortunately, it all needs a lot of work and I don’t know the first thing about it. So, we have generally maintained what we could, weeded like crazy and removed what was dead. And here’s a shocker–never planted a thing!
In our last house, we were primed and ready for a garden after making our own raised beds, but moved unexpectedly before we could actually make use of them. So yes, we embarrassingly have never planted a thing in either one of our houses, but that changed this weekend. You may remember a couple weeks ago, we tore out a bush in front of our house that was dying and generally gnarly. Remember, we’re good at that part. And it was so painfully plain after it was gone, we got up enough courage to pick some plants out for the plot.
While it used to have one, weirdly spaced, large bush, I thought a few things to fill in the area would look nice. We really don’t know a thing about plants, but I feel like I am pretty good with color and shape and spacing so we set out to a local nursery in town (Treehouse Nursery) hidden away to see what we could find. The wonderful thing about local nurseries is they will generally carry what grows well in the area. So all we were left to do was make sure the plants we chose were good in full to partial sun and would fit well in the space.
The nursery was breathtaking. It had 5 large greenhouses filled with flowers and ground cover and, ahh, it made me want to learn and study all about each one. In the center of all of these greenhouses, was an area brimming with trees and shrubs–which is where we headed. I am a shrub kinda gal when it comes to exteriors. We decided on three different shrubs (a Goldflame Spirea, which we already have in our outside bed and it does so well, a Black Lace Elderberry, love the intense purple/black finely cut leaves of this one and and evergreen bush. We also picked up 3 pots of the same decorative grass–Purple Fountain Grass to fill in–all of it came to $112. Which, as newbies, we were happy about.
When we got home, we played around with the arrangement a little, keeping in mind how large the Spirea and Elderberry will get especially.
Getting them in the ground only took us about 20 minutes. We both looked at each other and said, “We need to do more of this!” It was fun, quick and rewarding.
Although they are still young plants, they will grow and fill out and we can’t wait to watch their progress. Outside work, landscaping and maintaining, is h-a-r-d! It takes time and the results aren’t always immediate, but we got a little taste of what we’re in for and we are already excited to tackle another area.
[…] installed around our back/side yards. It has been heavenly for Greta and Charly (and us!). We also tore out a bush and planted some new shrubs. Painted the front door. Worked on our grass. And put up a […]
I’m in the same boat as you with the landscaping apprehension!
It’s funny because inside my house, I instinctively know what to do and feel confident in my decisions. But with the lawn, I’m constantly second guessing myself. I’ve been taking my time to figure out what exactly I like in an outdoor setting and doing a bit of research to find the right plants, so I appreciate you sharing the names of the ones that you picked.
I finally got around to making some small improvements out there in the past few weeks, which I’ve been sharing on my blog.
We JUST finished doing the sprinklers in our backyard (tonight is the big test to see if they work! Eeek!) We went to Home Depot the other day to pick out plants and I found myself pointing to every stinking shrub and saying “Will that last in this heat? I like it”. Turns out, I like A LOT of different plants, and they ALL work in the Arizona summer. Now I need someone to decide what ones will go well in my backyard, because I know nothing and can’t decide!!
I love working in our yard! I’m constantly re-arranging our plants to spots that fit better and fill things in. It’s much harder to work as I go, like doing a vignette inside, but it still works.
We had a complete overhaul to do on our yard and are slowly (very) learning about what to plant when and what might work… it’s hard, but we are loving it as well. you are right – it’s very rewarding!