Front of Home “Landscape Reveal”

It seems like it has taken forever to complete this piece of our landscape and hardscape project, but the front of our home is done!

Earlier this year, we embarked on a big outdoor renovation project for the front and the back of our home.

The back of the home is getting a new patio and courtyard area, which should be completed by next month. But at the moment, we are at a stand still as we wait for the slow boat from Turkey to arrive with our stone to complete the job. You can catch up on our patio progress here.

Hardscape Design – Patio Demolition (Part 1)

Hardscape Design – Outdoor Fireplace Demolition (Part 2)

Hardscape Design – Laying a Concrete Foundation for the Backyard Patio (Part 3)

The front of our home has been progressing along at what seems like a snails pace. We completed a big project, Restoring an Old Crumbling Flagstone Walkway which had quite a few hiccups and took waaay longer to finish than it should have, it is still getting a few tweaks even now. Check out Update on the Flagstone Walkway Restoration Project.

But onto the front landscape reveal! I can’t tell you what a difference changing out our landscape is making to the appearance of our home! As homeowners, I think it is fairly common to allow our bushes, shrubs, trees, and plants to get overgrown. Before you know it, they are encroaching over the fence, above the windows, and obstructing doors.

If bushes and shrubs are properly maintained, and given a good grooming in Spring and Fall, they can look beautiful for years to come. But if they are not groomed, and they grow too big, it’s very difficult to get them back to a manageable and suitable size…which is what happened to the front of our home. Sadly, the space has been neglected for years.

Let’s take a look at the before pictures.

All the evergreen shrubs are overgrown and hanging over the crumbling walkway.

Many have died due to the abundance of deer eating them every day.

There are empty spaces where dead shrubs have been removed.

The shrubs are tall, unshapely, and unattractive.

RIP old friend, looks like there are some deers running around with full bellies.

There is approximately 100 feet in the front of the house that needs to be cleaned up with new landscape.

This nasty crumbling walkway has finally been restored…thank god! You can check out post HERE.

Many of the evergreens are still in good shape and can be reused…elsewhere.

This is the area off the mudroom entrance where huge evergreens hide the view.

Deciding on a final plan for the project took months and several visits from our landscape design company. Deciding on a landscape company to use was also a time consuming process, check out this post Is it Worth the Money to Hire a Landscaping Company?

Once we made our final decision, it was Summer time and too hot to get the project started. Fear of the plants dying was a concern, so we waited until the weather cooled down in October.

Once the project began, it was completed in three days. The first job was to dig up all the evergreens and move them into the backyard for transplanting.

My second crew was on hand to select the best evergreens and transplant them into the ground.

Approximately 40 shrubs are dug up, and moved….by hand. That looks like hard work.

The space already looks more open.

The dirt is milled and fertilizer is layed down.

One day it was pouring rain, but the guys continued to work.

Now let’s take a look at the final result.

Once the work was completed and I went outside..I’m not gonna lie, my first reaction was that everything looked so small! This is the view coming out the front door. The large evergreens are gone and replaced with smaller round shrubs.

Two Ivory Silk trees are planted, one of the right and one on the left side of the portico.

Small evergreens and pink and yellow driftwood roses were also added to the landscape.

We eliminated most of the shrubs to the right side of the walkway and planted sod.

Two Dee Runk boxwoods are planted on the sides of the circular front entrance. Notice the River Birch trees in the distance? They look so much better after getting a good pruning, check out post The Importance of Limbing Up Trees in Your Yard.

A similar planting design is done on the left and right side of the portico.

This is the entrance off the mudroom door. The space is so incredibly open now! Hydrangeas and peonies have replaced the overgrown evergreens. Every morning when I look out this door, I am still amazed at how open it looks, it feels so freeing 🙂

And I love the new sod, the grass looks so lush now.

Six “Blue Maid” Holly bushes look so pretty, in the winter they will produce red berries.

I can’t wait to see everything in bloom next year, since we planted late in the season, many plants are going into dormancy. We will have to wait until next year to truly appreciate the new landscape, with the roses, hydrangeas, and peonies blooming. Many of the new plants produce a lovely scent (from what I was told) and I can’t wait to enjoy those plants as well.

It feels great to have this piece of our outdoor project complete. Next up, we need new landscaping at the bottom of our driveway, around our lighted pillars. I have been working on a design and hope to start that project soon.

Psssst….come closer. We have another big outdoor project brewing…I’ll reveal what it is in an upcoming post 😉 Stay tuned!!!

Thank you all for following along on our journey and I hope you are getting inspiration and ideas for your next home project!

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