Overgrown UGLY front yard

9 years ago

Hi. We bought a house about a year ago. It was owned by an older couple that did not do any upkeep with the outside or inside of the house. We have renovated most of the inside. I would like to work on the outside, however, it is just so much to take in. It is all overgrown. I have decided to just start with focusing on the front of the house. We have tackled taking out most of the old, rotted bushes, stubs, etc. I am trying to envision it as a "clean slate", however, the front off the house is overrun by myrtle and lilly of the valley. It also has a ton of vines creeping everywhere. My husband mowed what he could to try to get it down to the dirt, however, it is just starting to grow back again and look just as bad. Could you please advice on what I should do to start to tackle this very big eyesore! Thank you so much!

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Comments (3)

User
9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Pictures?

Take a full-front overview of the whole yard, then smaller sections.
Suzi AKA DesertDance So CA Zone 9b
9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
"Round up!" Spray everything! Vines are tough to get rid of. You can try dumping tons of boiling water in sections. That will cook the roots. It's a process, and you have to keep on top of it. We encountered the same thing! We still get suckers coming up and it's been over a year.

Found some amazing treasures in all the overgrowth and no dead bodies! Just a rabbit skeleton..........

There is hope. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. Keep at it!
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Petzold's on the right track; there is a legislative framework here. You are under no obligation to provide room and board for your neighbour's vegetation, nor to carry the workload of root or canopy pruning it, raking its debris, etc. Nor should you have to plant a line of defensive shrubs. I did some serious investigation of the legal issues involved last year as we had a neighbour who was refusing to cut down an enormous evergreen that was eating our house and totally using all the gardening space on our property. Fortunately they sold their house to some reasonable people who did the deed almost immediately upon taking possession. The bottom line is that you have a right to peaceful enjoyment of property (I think that is consistent from Canada to the US) and so, of course, do they. But you have a duty not to interfere with each other. So, they should keep their vegetation within bounds, and you cannot go onto their property and kill or change their tree. I should say that simply wanting your house to be visible is probably not a useful route to go, since they could probably park an RV on the spot as opposed to a tree; I don't think you have any recourse in that direction. You cannot seek to influence what they do ON their property. What you are legitimately concerned with is the impact on YOUR property. What you have some say over are issues such as trespass, nuisance, and damage to your property. Don't take this as legal advice, but this would include damage to your foundation or your car if it overhangs a driveway (or maybe in my case I should have considered suing for the cost of the many plants I lost to root competition and suffocation from tree debris!). The issue of nuisance would have addressed the many hours I spent basically servicing the tree; cleaning up its poop, trimming it on my side, cleaning our eaves, and so on, as well as the windy nights spent comforting our children, and losing sleep ourselves, for fear that the tree would fall on us. You should identify the issues explicitly, and pursue them from a legally rational point of view. Check just what your local ordinances require, but I think the right to peaceful enjoyment is an overarching one. In our case, it turned out that we had the right to cut both the roots and the canopy at the property line, and that we could have pursued its removal on the basis of danger. There is a huge body of legal cases on issues involving trees and neighbours. Every court or bylaw enforcement officer will expect you to have tried to work this out with your neighbour yourself before calling for enforcement. So you should inform the owner of exactly what bothers you about the tree, and ask to discuss possible routes of action - if you would like it removed, offer to pay for half the cost of removal or pruning, by all means. We did pay half, and consider it money well spent, since they don't technically have to remove but only manage the thing. If you have problems in the discussion, sometimes it is a good thing to have sent a registered letter. Email, of course, also leaves a paper trail. That may be more than you wanted to know, but it is to say that these issues can cause enormous rancour and stress if not dealt with with a clear head from the outset. KarinL
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In case anyone else notices this post, I have two thoughts. One, they sell dwarf azaleas which in the NE is what I would replace an overgrown one with. Two, you can snazz up a bleak cement porch steps with pots of geraniums. Easy peasy. There are other things top put in pots but that is one suggestion for snazzing up steps. Begonias are a nice substitution if the site is shady. In the winter, buy an evergreen rope to hang in front of the railing, with a few red velvet bows strategically placed.
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Yeah, my little guy and our full time jobs have obv pretty much consumed all the hours since he was born not quite 2 years ago. lol...But, the pots I had started pre-him are actually all my gorgeous hostas that are just sprouting and now need homes ;_; The big pots are my hydrangeas that are coming out as well. I didn't want to put any into the ground since I wasn't sure of the plan for our yard. I would like to keep them potted and in our hopefully semi shaded new patio wherever that may be. The weeds on that upper part have been a struggle since day 1. The tree roots sprout new shoots constantly, so weed killer becomes difficult. Not to mention, the roses we had inherited with the property became diseased so we are in the midst of pulling them out as well. Believe it or not, we had a full vegetable garden year before last which is why I was hanging on to the empty pots as we do not have great soil. Long story short, I am looking to have more livilable space that doesn't include more weeding, watering, and gardening in our outrageously hot summers. If I put a patio in the corner between the windows and the retaining wall, what would be the best surface? raised wood type? Gravel ? would gravel hinder drainage and made the ground underneath even more soggy? same issues with brick? Even if I had concrete poured and connected it to the existing patio what kind of drainage solution would we need under and around? These are my beauties from last spring.
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Lose the picket fence style shutters - they don't work and look like they are falling off. Fix the windows (and the indoor window coverings - they are tacky and look like you are trying to hide something). Clean up the yard and put some love into it. Replace the current shrubs with something healthy and more suited to shade and that will remain size appropriate. I'd add in some seasonal color as well. You could also change the paint color on the gable and front door to give it some life. A house and front garden that is clean, tidy and in good repair will seldom look like a "crack house"!!
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Wisconsin-Hawaii
9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Truthfully, it is easier to lay down a thick well-overlapped layer of newspapers or corrugated cardboard over the native soil, then cover this with several inches of new screened topsoil or (if you recently won the lottery) of soil-less mix, such as pro-mix.

The newspapers/cardboard will eventually rot away, but before they do, the underlying weeds and vines will be killed. In the meanwhile, whatever you put on top of the new soil (or soil-less mix) whether it is grass seed or sod or annuals and perennials in a flower bed--whatever it is will have gotten a good start with no competition from the overgrown jungle.

A couple of things to watch for:
MOWING: Mow or string trim the existing vegetation until it's as LOW as it will go, before you start laying.
WATER:You have to frequently water ANY new planting into the new soil/soil-less mix. For the first year, the roots of the new planting will not penetrate the underlying newspapers/cardboard, so the roots will be shallow and will require more water than if they were growing in deeper soil. By the middle of the second summer, you can dial down the watering, but until then, you really do have to water more frequently. (I myself would rather water than weed, however, I live in Wisconisin, where water is not rationed).

If you are making a flower bed, you can cut down somewhat on the watering by adding a thick-ish mulch on top of the new surface, but for a lawn, you cannot mulch.

ENOUGH THICKNESS: For this trick to work, you need a LOT of newspapers or cardboard. You can probably get the amount you need at a recycling center, or by going around and collecting from your neighbors on recycling day. You want at least 6-8 sheets of newspapers over each spot, and at least 2-3 inches of overlap. Corrugated in a single layer is enough, but the overlap will need to be more as the cardboard is stiffer. Watering the newspaper/corrugated helps stop if from blowing away, and helps soften it to assist with conforming to the local bumpyness of the ground. But, lay soil on top asap, anyhow, because even quite wet newspaper will dry faster than you think and take flight at even a small wind.

AMOUNT OF SOIL: You want to add at least 1.5 inches, and 2" are better. This is a LOT of soil, so you might want to do this in sections, a little every day.

QUALITY OF THE NEW SOIL: If the new soil delivered is of low quality, you are simply trading one bad soil for another. If your local landscaper offers different grades of soil, get the one with most compost already in it. That way, even if weeds do get started, they'll more easily pull out of a loose and fluffy soil than a crusted low-organic- matter soil. Or, if you can afford soil-less mix (easier to afford for a flower bed than a lawn) you will have no weed-seed problem.

TIMING: Do all this AFTER tree-seed drop next spring, or you will be pulling out a million baby maples, elms, ash trees, whatever, out of your newly delivered soil. Some weed seeds will blow in on top no matter what you do, but by waiting until after tree-seed drop, you'll cut your weeding chores substantially.

Overgrown UGLY front yard

Comments (3)

User

Suzi AKA DesertDance So CA Zone 9b

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