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Landscape Advice Needed | New Homeowners

9 years ago

last modified: 9 years ago

We just purchased our first home in the southeast and are very new to gardening, landscape design, etc. Would love to get some help/advice on how to create some curb appeal in our front yard and how to create a lush and inviting backyard. To give you some background, our home was vacant for 15 years - overgrown with poison sumac, honeysuckle, ivy, you name it... After it was cleaned out and renovated, we were left with a pretty blank canvas. Our front yard has a mixture of fescue and centipede grass. It also has quite a bit of weeds already and some bald patches. We have 6 new camellia bushes in front of each window (which we were told would need to be moved because they grow so large) and three azalea bushes. We also have a non-blooming forsythia by our mailbox. So far we have raked the entire yard, placed edging on the right side of the house and over-seeded the bald spots with fescue (we weren't sure what grass to use...). Any advice or help would be greatly appreciated. Please see photos below for details. Thanks!

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Mike Larkin
9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
You have a beautiful home. When it was built , the builder had a plan to follow. You should have one for the foundation plants as well. The plan will allow you and someone that has expect plant knowledge to select the right plant for the right spot. The camellia bushes are a good example. Also someone with an eye for design, may suggest a more curvy bed design, plants of different height, texture, and different bloom times.

There are many options for obtaining professional help. Some garden centers will provide a design, and then you buy the plants from them, there are many landscape designers that will sell you a design and you plant DIY ( saving you the cost of labor) And I am sure there will be many suggestions here on this forum.

Next - We will be able to provide the best help, if you identify where the home is located ( exact address not needed) . For example, (Central PA , zone 6) also does the house face N,E,W,S ? And how much sun/shade (hrs) does the front get. Also how high are those windows from the ground..... The photos are really good, but we will need more.

Regarding the non-blooming forsythia by our mailbox. Did you plant it? do you know what type of forsythia this is ? Most forsythia I am familiar with get about 8x8, so the location is not ideal. Also did you prune and when? Best to prune in the late spring after the regular bloom time. Otherwise you may have pruned the blooms if you punned too late.

Enjoy you beautiful home !

Garden Design Ideas Mike L
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The hostas are going to overlap your walkway and make it look even narrower. You should have listened to your wife. (Is there an echo in this thread LOL?) In addition to not looking good from a design standpoint, the little beds that you have put in are a real pain to trim around when you're mowing. And if they don't have neatly trimmed edges they don't look good no matter what is growing in them. I would also take out the bed around the lamp post and just grass up to it. Focus on the house for the landscaping.
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