Our Landscape: A True Work-In-Progress

Jonathan and I arrived back from our 10th anniversary trip on Sunday evening (more about that later) and knew we would be working in the yard on Memorial Day.  Our poor yard...it has so been neglected since we moved in three years ago.  But now that Isaac and Kathryn are old enough to help play outside, we have been able to tackle small pieces of the landscape surrounding our hillside home. 

Background...As we neared the end of our building adventure, the builder asked what we would like to do in regards to landscaping.  I knew Jonathan and I wanted to keep our landscape as low maintenance as possible, so I told him to mulch E.V.E.R.Y.T.H.I.N.G. and we will deal with plants later.  When the kids were under six months old, I bought three boxwoods and three pine saplings and basically threw them in the ground.  (Those six plants will be up on Craigslist in the future.)  The kids weren't big fans of sitting in their bouncy seats while I worked outside.  Not to mention, I truly struggled with what I wanted and how I wanted our landscape to look, so after reading an article on a local landscape design firm that worked with natives, I asked Jonathan to give them a call.  We invited them out, decided to hire them to draw us up a plan, they drew up the plan and invited us back to the office to present the plan.  After informing us it would cost $30K to address our back bank only (to which Jonathan responded, "So we basically need to sell a child to pay for the back bank?"), we decided we would address our landscape ourselves and over time. 

Last year, we put in two anise, a sasanqua camellia (espalier) and two winter daphne.  The anise have both tripled in size and need shaping (which really should be done in January/February).  The camellia didn't make it and to be quite honest, I am glad.  I want a low maintenance landscape, and a trellised camellia doesn't lend itself to low maintenance.  I lost one winter daphne this February, but after speaking with several local nurseries, that doesn't surprise me.  Those daphne can be very moody.  But the one daphne that made it...doubled in size!    To further fill out these two beds, I plan on rooting clippings from my mom's camellia bush and her two very happy daphnes as well as purchase some perennials to fill in that area where I am testing mums and the other orange flowering perennial who's name escapes me at the moment.

Anise (far left) & daphne (far right)

Second anise

Which brings us to last week...We had some pretty bad drainage issues that had developed over the last three years.  After determining it would take Jonathan and I every weekend all summer long to deal with it, we decided to hire someone who could tackle it in one day.  That one day was last Wednesday.   With the drainage issues addressed, I knew we needed to get some plants in the ground to further stablize that area.  After calling around on Wednesday afternoon, we decided to stop by one local nursery on Thursday morning to pick up three Euonymus plants.  I planted those Thursday during nap time. 

Upper drainage problem area addressed & ready for plants

The upper drainage problem area calls for a grouping of fothergilla, an American Holly tree and a bed of perennials.



Lower drainage problem area which is now a euonymus bed



Yesterday, we headed to our local home improvement store to purchase edging materials and check to see if they had any native plants.  They did!  So we purchased one Fragrant Tea Olive tree and five Ruby Ribbons Switch Grasses (which can grow to 48" x 36").  The tea olive tree is not one of the plants suggested for the recently addressed drainage area, but we are working where it belongs as well (due to a digging/destruction event held by my mom's dogs last week) so we decided to snatch it up too.  The switch grass area also calls for a mulched path, a swale to collect rain water from our directed downspouts, a grouping of American Beauty Berry, a perennial bed, three Chickasaw Plums and the beginning of our seeded meadow. 

During nap time, I planted all five of the switch grass.  After nap time, I started on the edging while Jonathan fixed the dig/destruction aftermath. 

Extension of lower drainage problem area...now displaying switch grass w/ partial edging

Today, the kids and I will be back outside to finish up the edging and later this week we will head to yet another local nursery (which sold a Groupon earlier this year...!!!) to purchase more plants.  But one HUGE benefit to delaying our work outside for so long...native volunteers that can be transplanted!!  So far I have located mountain laurel, rhododendrons, three butterfly weeds and several areas of white daisies.  Some of it can be a bit tricky to transplant.  Fortunately, my dad has had great success transferring and can share his tips!

That orange flower in the center is volunteer butterfly weed! (Click to zoom)