We bought a house where the previous owner seemed to spend far more time caring for the outside than he did the inside. We received a few quotes on having some shrubs pulled out in front of our house and several landscapers have noted that the previous owner spent "A LOT of money on plants".. And he spent a lot of time caring for them too! I am not able physically to take on the demands required and neither is my husband. He also doesn't have the time to keep up with landscaping, even if he could. We have "black thumbs" and really have no interest in maintaining a garden or plants.

Major issues:

1) The front of house is where the septic is located. When we had it pumped the septic company was shocked that there was a huge shrub that was planted directly over one of the covers. He said not only is that bad for the septic because roots could grow into the system, but it would also be bad if God forbid they ever needed to access that cover because it would be very costly to have the septic company remove it. Not to mention it would be a hassle if it needed to be removed and in emergency type situation. There are 8 shrubs (one of which the landscapers tell me is "very invasive" aka bad to grow above septic) planted directly on top of the septic tank! And *knock on wood* this hasn't been a problem for the previous owner (that we know of), we don't want to take chances and also we don't want to maintain all the shrubs and flowers.

2) shrubs are far too close to the foundation. We don't like this because it could cause cracks/foundation damage, but also (and more importantly to us at the moment) we don't want to deal with the bugs and insects attracted to these shrubs/plants

3) front of house gets direct sunlight pretty much all day and we're told by neighbor's that previous owner spent a fortune trying to water and keep up with all the landscaping. That is not our cup of tea! Nor is it in our budget

we found a landscaper to remove all the shrubs for good price. It would leave a tree and some flowers on the side of the house (opposite side of the septic) which would also act as a privacy/land divider barrier between us and the neighbor's so we are OK with leaving that since it is low maintenance

Does anyone have ideas on making a home look nice and welcoming if it has no shrubs or flowers in front of it? My husband plans to mulch the area where the shrubs were. He wants to add a rock border along the mulch. Put either a bird bath or some type of faux rock feature on top of the septic covers.

He was thinking perhaps we could put a large potted plant on the side of the front steps? On top of the mulch? That way the pot adds some visual appeal and we can choose to plant a low mainentance flower inside of the flower pot.

Husband also mentioned adding a stone pathway from the front steps to the driveway so that the front yard isn't completely bare. Would it look odd to only have a mulched area with no shrubs or plants in front of a home?

Im just wondering if we are committing a design sin by removing all the shrubbery and plants? lol I fear we'll regret doing it but I know it's the best thing for us...

1,296 Voorhees, NJ Landscape Contractors