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lhanson2010

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.)

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