Cute house with so many possibilities :-) Congratulations!

I think adding a front porch would be dandy for sipping ice tea in the summer. Across the front a few evergreen conifers you can shape and maybe roses or hydrangeas? Hang boston ferns on the rafters?
{{!gwi}}

Edna

I would go to the gardening side of the board and visit forums that will work for your area and the type of garden you envison. Gardeners are very helpful. You already know your zone I can see from your profile. Are you in a humid area? Arid? Some plants are very suseptable to disease in humid areas. Some plants will require constant watering in dry areas. Try to use indigenous plantings whenever possible! Very important!

Your house faces east(?) so you may not have enough sun for a rose trellis in the spot you say you want it. Decide on what type of plantings you want...lots of flowers or just greens showing texture? How much time do you want to devote to maintenance - "put 'em in and forget 'em" or do you like to 'putter' in the garden? Take into consideration the historical architechture of the house and match your plants to it.

Don't forget about off season 'winter interest' when planning the garden. Have some evergreens instead of all deciduous plantings, and things that can go dormant without looking scraggy. Know th bloom times of all the plants you buy. Plants sold at nurseries are usually forced into blooming so they look attractive when they are being sold. The next year they may not bloom until the end of summer or the middle or the beginning. Try to have plants that bloom in rotation so you do not get a blast of color and then nothing the other eleven months of the year.

Do any of your neighbors have gardens? If you are friendly with other gardeners in your area they may be happy to give you splits or cuttings from their gardens to help you stretch you $250 budget and get you started. There are plant and seed exchanges on the garden side of this board posted all the time.

Make up a plan mapping out the plantings you wish to put in. Having an overall plan will ensure beautiful results. Don't buy every pretty little plant you see at the nursery. Be 'planner' not a 'plopper'. To stretch your budget further buy seeds and plant them rather than purchasing a whole plant. Or buy one plant that self seeds and if you have patience you will have lots of plants the next year. Invest your 'big money' in proper shrubs to give the garden backbone and put in other plantings when you can afford them.

Definitely a front porch, as in that cute photoshopped version by dancewithwolves. I love your home - it has so many possibilities!

When we moved into our home we didn't have the budget for landscaping either. We hired a landscape designer to draw plans for the lot and it was absolutely the best investment we've ever made.

When the money became available we'd have the work done in stages - First, the hardscape was installed then on to irrigation installation and ending with the planting. To save money on plant purchases, we opted for 1 gallon sizes for shrubs, for trees we went with 15 gallon sizes. You'd be surprised how quickly plants grow and fill in the space!

So, I'd suggest for the time being just keep your lawn lush and green. Clear the flower bed area, keep it weeded and neat until your budget allows you to create the yard of your dreams. :) A lovely garden design adds much value and pleasure to a home.

oh thanks so much for the visual! I love it the added porch however some of those changes couldn't be made without putting on a new roof and doing some major renovations, so I don't know if that's in the cards for us for some time.

How does one find a landscape designer to hire to just do a plan and how much would something like that cost?

I'd love to see some other photoshop magic if anyone is able. I know there are some amazingly talented people on here. I've done some photoshopping for others on here but I just have no vision when it comes to landscaping so I thought I would ask here. I asked on the garden landscaping board but they don't love new people to come in and ask for help like that very much. Honestly, If I could visualize something I could then figure out which plants would work in my area that LOOK like the visualization. LOL I know that sounds backwards but I'm such a visual person lol.

Anyway - thank you so much! :)

rhapsdy, you could do the porch, but instead of doing a real roof you could use an pergola type top structure. Only need to attach it to the facia. It won't be an all weather porch, but it will also allow more light in especially if you're facing east.

I know what you mean about the landscape board. People here have been much better help to me for visulizing and are such a great bunch. Plant selections for my area I can usually figure out what would work in a similar manner, but the visualizing part is hard.

If you know photoshopping, how about just playing around yourself? A walking path, some curved beds, height in the back or even higher between windows, lower plants in front.

love the idea of the pergola instead of a solid roof there - I hadn't thought of that. My biggest issue with the front of the house is that stupid post that's so close to the door. It can't really be moved out as that's the edge of the roof and if it was moved to the side it wouldn't be supporting the roof, just underneath the overhang. Soo...that's just not an option. It's a quirk I've gotta work around for the time being for sure.

OH and as far as I can figure out our house is facing North West - Possibly a little more west than north. :)

We added a pergola and I can't begin to tell you the difference it made in making the house look "balanced". It was too heavy on the left side and adding a pergola gave it a right side. Not to mention the charm of the swing added with it. But your house is back heavy. It needs something to bring it all the way out to the street. A porch, fence, pergola, heck those are all great ideas. Use the funky post as the lefthand side of the pergola and go out to the front and to the right with your new area. it can go directly on the house.

I need to get updated pictures of the stained decking and pergola (with swing and grapevines added!), but here's how we did it.....
{{gwi:141632}}

way longer ago... (see how it looked chopped off? too much left and no right side? ICK!)

Here is something a little different. I just did what I would do. Paint the shutters green, paint the posts brown or beef them up and paint the front door a purply brown.
{{!gwi}}

Linda

Rob333 - LOVE that pergola! I would love to see the finished pictures. It looks like that really helped balance your house and totally makes sense! I will have to play around with the idea of adding one to our house and bringing the house forward. You are right - it is back heavy!

Linda - thanks for the photoshop job. I don't think I could ever get my husband to go for green shutters. LOL He's actually very fond of the black shutters.

We are trying right now to get a vision of where we want to go with the house long term so we can do as suggested and purchase with a vision in mind instead of just putting in plantings for right now. :) I appreciate everyone's vision and ideas! They help give us ideas on what we like! :)

Professional Landscapers are expensive. Especially when it involves an irrigation system. I was quoted $9000.00 just for sprinklers.

Come on over to the Cottage Garden forum. Great people over there with great ideas.

oh thanks for that suggestion! I didn't know that there was such a forum or that since our house didn't look very "cottagy" if we would fit in there! :) I'll head on over and look around. :D

rhapsdy, as for that post. If you put a post on each side of the door to support the roof as in the first drawing then you can likely balance the load out and the post can might be moved. You'd need a structural person to look at your specific case, but often it is simpler than you think in moving something loadbearing.