How do I simplify this landscaping insanity?!

10 years ago

My husband and I just bought a beautiful 1926 painted shingle home. We're so excited to move in and make it our own, including with regards to landscaping. In my opinion, the current landscaping in the front yard is NUTS. It's overkill. In person, it feels pretty ostentatious - a ton of manicured bushes, linear arrangements of flowers, and (what is now overgrown) greenery carpeting large swaths of the yard. It's all arranged to resemble an ellipse - which, for a front yard that isn't very deep, is pretty ambitious. To me, it makes the house appear SMALLER, rather than complementing it nicely.

HOW do I go about simplifying what I've got here? I'm drawn to landscaping designs that give the impression the home was purposefully situated in a beautiful natural environment that could host it lovingly - rather than landscaping that's overly manicured and fussy. For instance, I love English gardens or what you see when you google Martha's Vineyard (hah). The only thing I like about the front yard are the hydrangeas directly next to the house's front walls, and I like the tree near the brick wall (I think it might be a crepe myrtle but I'm not sure).

Beyond just ripping everything out and planting grass... can I do anything un-fussy with this? What would you do?? (P.S. The fish-eye exaggerates the space between curb and sidewalk; that's about 5 feet at most. The yard is maybe 20-25 feet deep.)

Featured Answer

Sigrid

10 years ago

I have a few pics of what I think your vision is. The features include grasses, a nice calculation of heights, and no mulch showing. To achieve this you have to start by looking at your shrubs, which might be, currently pruned. You want to let them grow naturally and figure out the height and spread. Then you want to fill in with native perennials in various, complementary heights. You may want to change the contours of your beds, to make them more organic.

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Comments (7)

Sigrid
10 years ago
If you want to make it look more like a natural landscape, reduce pruning to vary the height and add plants to the beds so they are not marooned in islands of much. I'd add some grasses or other looser plants.
decoenthusiaste
10 years ago
last modified: 10 years ago
To achieve more of an English garden look I'd replace all the maintenance intensive shrubs with traditional perennial plants. The will be much less intensive as they will repeat. If you can find plants native to your region you'll have even better luck with them in your specific conditions. For additional color at "off" times for perennials, you can add some annuals occasionally. Plan for plants to eventually hide the mulch. Hydrangeas and crepe myrtles will be good anchor plants for the English garden look.

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decoenthusiaste
10 years ago
Take your time. Perennials will spread out over a few years. The thing is year 1 they sleep, year 2 they creep and year 3 they leap, so leave room for them to fill in over the mulch.
Maraly Wagner
10 years ago
It looks beautiful. Add grasses and things that don't need to be pruned.
lefty47
10 years ago
HI -- This is a formal house with a formal garden. I think you want to take things away and not add more to it. . Decide what has to go or what you don't want . Maybe sell some things and others can dig it up. I could see a random grove of trees like aspens or birches with what trees your keeping and then plant No-mow grass (Eco Grass ) it is drought tolerant and you can mow a couple of times over the summer if you want but you don't have to. Don't make little islands around the tress etc. Then have some hostas and ground covers etc. around and so on . Maybe move the urns up closer to the front porch or garage ..
bunnyllg
10 years ago
I agree, random perennials give a more relaxed look. You are lucky you just need to edit what you have. It is more difficult to start from scratch. Here is my project.