Overgrown mess - would love suggestions - Pics

16 years ago

My sister recently purchased a 70s ranch home in MD (zone7) The PO went crazy with plants and now the front looks like something from the adams family.

I would like to remove 90% of the plant material and start over.

My tentative plan around the front entrance is to remove all of the aging azaleas and plant dwarf cherry laurel, nandina firepower, green acuba. The groundcover will be replaced with dwarf mondo grass. However, I am not sure what to do with the remaining portion of the front yard.

any and all suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!

Almost forgot - front is mostly shady.

Thanks so much!!

Diana

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Comments (9)

tibs
16 years ago
Live with it thru 4 seasons if you can stand to do that to see just exactly what you have and what is still a viable plant. Weed, edge, prune, rake, and you might not need to take out as much as you think. Lots of good bones. Looks like it just didn't have any maintenance the last few years.
duluthinbloomz4
16 years ago
Definitely work out a plan before taking a pruner or shovel to anything predicated on:

Does the budget allow for a complete do over?

Do you want to retain the current shape of the planting areas? Is the forward facing bed in the top picture necessary or would returning this area to grass improve the overall site?

Would it be worth relocating some of the existing material elsewhere on the property?

Evaluate anything that can be saved - the stand alone tree/shrub held together with a bungee cord would be the first thing I'd cut down to the ground. Then I'd research those things where a judicious pruning might stimulate new bottom growth or could be brought back to reasonable shape and size - the azaleas come to mind here.

As a practical matter, and if it were mine; stage one of this project would be a general clean up. The existing groundcover is pretty ratty, and if that were gone, it would just be neater around the entrance for the time being. Cut back anything overgrowing windows. I realize my approach wouldn't be universally acceptable - ripping it all out and looking at raw landscaping until new things settle in and achieve some size is a possible solution, too. As would be ripping it all out and replacing with specimens as large as the budget allows so the whole scheme doesn't go from Addams Family to the opposite extreme in one fell swoop.
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dianar95
Original Author
16 years ago
Thank you both for your suggestions!

I think that you are both absolutely right - just a general cleanup and serious pruning would be the first step.

Duluth - the forward facing bed is causing me the most heartburn because the only plants that my sister wants to keep are the two large ansonias, so I cannot sod over the area completely. The bungee tree (as I fondly call it) will be cut down, and I would love to remove the virburnum bush (now a tree), but maybe for now a hard pruning would be the best approach.

Thanks again for your help - I haven't even shown you the other side of the front yard (just as bad!)

Diana
digdig
16 years ago
I'm with tibs. Clean up the beds, add fresh mulch, try a little renovation on the azaleas, remove the bungee tree. I assume the large plant along the driveway is the viburnum--careful removal of some stems might produce a swell clump that serves as the feature plant. Shame to lose it. Personally I don't care for the informal path to the front door, but that is a style choice, I suppose. The long view shows the front door is obscured by a shrub. Any security concerns with that? Right now it just needs some care and shaping. See what it does in the spring and then decide an overall plan.
agardenstateof_mind
16 years ago
Overgrown perhaps, but not a mess. I'm glad you've decided to phase the renovation. Waiting and observing through a full four seasons is also a wise idea. Mature plantings, and the ambiance they lend, are hard to come by. I agree that there are good bones there and feel it really has a lot of charm that could be too easily lost in a large re-do, but enhanced by tidying things up a bit, replacing or restoring the health to that groundcover by the front walk as first steps. Annuals and perennials can hide some of the "bare ankles" either permanently or until they grow back in after renewal pruning.

Many of those plants can be rejuvenated with proper pruning. The bungee bush - I can't quite make out what it is - may come back beautifully if you prune out 1/3 of the canes each year, removing the oldest and least desireable ones. I believe just about all of the plants with that multi-stemmed form respond well to this technique, but please check first. (I used it to prune some overgrown forsythias and when my husband first saw the pile of prunings, he was afraid there'd be nothing left of the bushes ... but there they were, still looking full and healthy, just more in proportion to their space and a great deal more civilized, without having lost their beautiful, natural fountain-like form)

I'd have a ball in that yard!

So ... when do we get to see the other side? :-)

And, um ... please don't forget to come back and post some spring photos? I'll be it's going to be beautiful, especially if there are any spring bulbs in there, which you'll want to look out for if you do do any excavating this autumn.

Good luck ... have fun ... and please keep us posted!
dianar95
Original Author
16 years ago
thanks again for everyone's thoughtful comments!

I started pulling out the groundcover, and the front area is already looking better.

DigDig, I agree with you about the flagstone path - too cottagey for a ranch style home...

AGardenstateofmind, the bungee tree is actually a some sort of viburnum. (The PS actually told my sister that it was supposed to lean!!).

Here is the other side - I removed all of the weeds -if there were any perennials there, they had disappeared or were gobbled up by the weeds. My goal is to move the rocks in closer and perhaps move one of the ansonias there. You can see where I have been laying sod to make the bed smaller. Any suggestions on what to plant here would also be very welcome.
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Thanks again to everyone for your ideas and encouragement!
Diana
robinsway
16 years ago
Dianar95, I confess to being a viburnum lover, as the previous owner of your sister's house must have been, so I will dare to defend the bungee bush before you axe it.

The bungee bush looks like it could be Viburnum setigerum -- the tea viburnum. Does it have glossy red berries, and is the foliage beginning to develop fall color yet. Tea viburnum begins as an upright, vase-shaped shrub, but they always seem to lean towards the sun. The fall berries are heavy and gorgeous, and they seem to weight it down, too. This one seems to be planted in the worst possible spot, maybe due to the shadiness of the garden. It can only look awful stuck out there in isolation, and it does. Tea viburnum looks much better towards the back of a planting bed or shrub row, leaning over some ground cover or low evergreens to add color in the autumn. It can take a lot of shade, and it flowers on the new growth. Maybe it could be cut back and moved next spring and have a new life?

On the other hand, if I'm wrong and this is just an Amur honeysuckle, then annihilate it.

Here is a link that might be useful: More about tea viburnum
dianar95
Original Author
16 years ago
Holly,
Thanks for the information about the tea viburnum (aka the bungee plant) - it does have beautiful red berries- no color yet. Now I understand why the PO called it a leaning plant - too bad that it was planted out in the middle of the lawn.

I will follow your suggestion of pruning and then possibly moving it next spring.

Again, thanks for all of your help!
Diana
tibs
16 years ago
Diana, I am so glad you decied to ty to work with what is there. Definately post pictures next spring.

Overgrown mess - would love suggestions - Pics

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