Landscaping the front yard

If you recall from my Foundation Plantings post, this was vaguely the plan for the front of the house.

On Thursday, I took a trip to Mahoney’s Garden center in Winchester to pick up the holly bushes. This place is HUGE!!! It deserves it’s own post. I’ll be back to do a full review.

The first order of business is to plop down the plants where I’d like them to go. Since the grass is not really in great condition, I think I’ll probably place down some artificial turf to keep it green year round.

Then I dug the holes and planted them. Easier said than done. There were giant, ancient yews in the front yard when we bought the house and the roots were everywhere.

So I clipped them with garden snips.

It made for slow going but eventually I got all 4 big holes dug.

UPDATE: As fate would have it, my blog bestie, victoriaelizabethbarnes.com is doing a giveaway for an awesome tool that would have come in soooo handy while I was digging these holes.  I mean, look at those snips!  Rusty and they barely cut!  If you would like to win a super awesome not-rusty shiny garden trowel, hop on over to her blog!

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I also moved one of the boxwoods over. I had planted them last fall with the expectation that I would move them once the water main was replaced. He moved really easily since he hadn’t been planted for that long.

And voila, planted:

After planting, I seeded the lawn. As you can see from the pictures, the yard was in desperate need of help.

I watered everything well and came back the next day to lay down landscape fabric and mulch.

I edged the bed with bricks. I’m not sure how I like the mixed painted/unpainted bricks. I may go back and switch them out. It does look nice edged though.

Did you notice the other change? I’ll give you a hint.

Saturday Morning:

Saturday Evening:

Yes, I painted the porch! Whoo. Knock that off the list!  The step rails still aren’t painted but they need to be tightened up and caulked so I put that off for another time.

I’m so pleased with the progress we made this weekend. It was a busy weekend to be sure but I’m so proud of all the work I did!

Sarah