Need some input on front beds and curb appeal.
This is the bed in front of our cabin in the mountains of north Georgia. I have spent 2 years(part time) here cleaning out the bed to the point you see it now. the previous owners were gardeners but due to age and the illness of the wife it wasn’t kept up. The front bed was totally overgrown with perennials (lots of lilies) and they had apparently planted an invasive nightmare called a chameleon plant. I think I’ve finally gotten rid of it and am left with 3 Japanese maples, the conifer, some nandina and lambs ear. The green in the center is mostly moss from a crazy almost 6 months of endless rain. I want to keep the pine straw beds and add pots and annuals. But the open center has stumped me. we have sold our lawn mowers (intentionally) so no grass. I was thinking gravel and conifers, kind of what my parents called a Rockery?
Pics start from the road out front and I go counterclockwise around to where my MINI is.
In this pic you can see where my sister in law and I dug up rocks from the rivers edge and made an area in the curve of the circular driveway. It is too narrow so we made it so people in big SUVs can make the turn without worrying about plants.
Can’t see it in this pic, but we did the same thing with buried rocks in this curve as well.
This is the south side of the house. So in the summer it’s pretty brutal.
Thoughts? We are on well water so can water this area to get things established.
Comments (15)
ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
5 years agoAnnette Holbrook(z7a)
5 years agoKen, yes that is the main road. Luckily we are on a cul de sac and there is only one other house past ours.
I took these pics from the upstairs window to get a better overview.
Here is a drone shot from the original realtors listing. The red line is the road.
As you may be able to see from this pic there was an raised round bed in the center. We have removed those rocks and leveled the area for the most part.
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Help - need some curb appeal
Comments (6)Nice job Dig Doug! Landscaping and hardscape is the most cost effective improvement. I also think you need to replace the front door with one that doesn't have a semi-circle window in the door. Either a solid door or a square window. Then paint the door a bright, welcoming color. What is your favorite color? Blue? Yellow? Red? Orange? Here are a few colors for inspiration to start:...See MoreNeed Curb Appeal! Driveway Landscaping and very large front rock bed
Comments (24)It would definitely be trouble to have two groundcovers (they usually spread sideways ... ivy does for sure) abutting one another in the same bed. How would you keep them apart? (That looks like English ivy in the picture. Algerian ivy is similar, but is a more robust, more drought resistant plant as I understand it. @longbranchstitch ... " I’m curious about the ivy comment. We live in the PNW where we battle ivy all the time ... I personally would never set out to plant it." You can't identify any use that it would serve ... covering and smoothing over rough ground? ... erosion control? ...growing where no other plants will? ....low cost per square foot of cover? ...evergreen for all-season use? Those are some of the reasons a person might want it. If none of those reasons work for you, why don't you get a serious program going that includes IVY KILLER, and get rid of it? If it's somewhat useful and you don't want to get rid of it all, why don't you consider learning to manage it? For example you complain that it grows up trees. It takes literally one minute per year to severe all the ivy growing up a single tree trunk. If you have 180 trees, that's three hours per year to solve that problem! How much time would it take to mow a lawn on which 180 trees would fit? ... maybe 50 times that amount of time and it would require an expensive machine! So the trade-off for ivy seems possibly favorable on that count. Anyway, you can evaluate whether it could be useful to you, or not, and then either get rid of it or get it under control....See Moreboring backyard help and front needs some curb appeal
Comments (11)You need to think of everything you have ever wanted in your yard, even if you can't afford to do it all right now. Also, how you usually use your yard. You did not say if you have or plan to have children. Then draw out a plan on paper of how it would look. Very simple but it must be to scale. It is easy to do on grid paper. You can use symbols to indicate trees and shrubs and such. You do not need to be a good artist. I do have a few thoughts about your front and back yards. For the back yard I would add two trees for privacy. I would want ever green, including broad leaf trees. You may not want privacy in the winter and might what deciduous trees. I would also want trees that do not get extremely tall. That is a personal preference because I do not like huge trees in urban areas, unless it is in a park. For the front yard I would keep it simple and plant a hedge on each side of the steps. I would place it equal to the beginning of the steps or perhaps a foot forward. I would use evergreen plants. I cannot recommend plants as I do not know your area. It does not need to be a sheared hedge. This what I mean by a non sheared hedge. Too tall for your use but an example of what I mean. I would grow nothing behind the hedge. I would heavily mulch, maybe with straw. I would also have a bed for either perennials or annuals in front of the hedge. It would be nice if you could have a small tree like plant on the right side of the yard. I don't know if it is feasible as I don't know where the lot line is and I can see overhead wires. It could be something like a lilac trimmed into tree shape. I did not try to draw it. Some people like plants at the corner of their house. I don't think it is needed and would be careful because of the driveway but I show one anyway. You could have one on both sides if you like. Lastly I see another area in need of privacy. Again for the purpose of blocking windows I would have a tall hedge in this area. If it is something that blooms in summer it would be nice for the scent near the deck. Your yard looks large and it would be quite expensive to buy enough plants if you fill it in this year. I don't expect you to do that but you need to plan what you want for the future....See MoreLandscaping at front porch - need to add curb appeal and hide pipes
Comments (11)One could not know how to reshape the bed by looking at half of it, or seeing it at an angle from a distance. Return to where you took the first picture. Move in closer but where you can see the whole first floor of house and the lawn. (You'll be standing on the parkway or near edge of walk. OK to turn the camera to vertical format.) Take a panoramic picture by using that feature of the camera or by taking slightly overlapping pictures. Show every square in the of yard space that is between both drives. (We'll also be seeing your right neighbor's house in the background.) Normally, the clean-out pipes are cut off flush to the ground surface. I don't know if there's anything about your area that requires different, but that's the reason you don't see them elsewhere. Do all the yards there have these things sticking up like that?...See More
PROYardvaark
5 years agoAnnette Holbrook(z7a)
5 years agoYardvaark, (great name). I think I will treat it as a big bed like you suggest. However I may put down pea gravel in that section. Pine straw is great but it is really slick to walk on and this bed does kind of act as a walkway between the two buildings. Maybe like this?
Annette Holbrook(z7a)
5 years agoView from kitchen sink, so obviously need to plant stuff deer don’t love.
indianagardengirl
5 years agolast modified: 5 years agoAnnette Holbrook(z7a)
5 years agolast modified: 5 years agoIndianagardengirl, thanks for that. Personally I’ve never liked pea gravel for some reason but thought it might be complementary to the river rock. I have crushed stone in the walkways of the house we are selling. It’s like small bits of grey granite(which is what I think is quarried in Georgia). I guess it‘s a neutral?
We also have had to take down a number of trees that were crowding the back of the house. So can slice those up to make stepping spots.
floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK
5 years agoken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
5 years ago
Christopher CNC
5 years agoAnnette Holbrook(z7a)
5 years agoKen, these are pics from when we first bought the cabin. We removed all the camellias under the Japanese maples as they intruded into the circular drive making it impossible to get out of your car if you parked there! We removed the variegated bushes on the cabin side of the driveway as they were too much for the space.
- PRO
Yardvaark
5 years ago Annette Holbrook(z7a)
5 years agolast modified: 5 years agoOmg, I can’t believe I forgot this. I got this arbor last Mother’s Day from my kids. It is currently in the garage waiting to be set up. But here it is tentatively set up.
Oh, and here is the area last summer mid clear out To show how the trees look leafed out.
PROAnnette Holbrook(z7a) thanked Celery. Visualization, Rendering images
ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5