Here’s the ‘before’
picture of our lawn:
Today, I’m showing you the war-zone that is our front
yard with the grass sliced off:
Talk
about the blank page, the table rasa…whatever you want to call a front yard
that won’t grow a blade of the green stuff, ever again. And I’m from the Midwest, where acres of
grass and a riding lawn mower to cut it, are common.
But no more. In California, we have to water lawns to keep
them green, wasting precious water and costing lots of money. Drought tolerant plants, here we come! And because homeowners can spend too much on
these endeavors (much more than they’ll ever get back when they sell their
home), I’ve decided to work with a local gardener instead of employing an
expensive architect/company. One
neighbor spent $150,000 on his front/back yard redo. I’m going to try to keep costs to around
$30.000. Wish me luck!
Now, I’ve seen my share
of blank pages before, but they don’t scare me like this front lawn
project. Plus, in a novel, we try to
come up with unique settings, plots and characters, so we can make the story
our own. We’re told not to guess what
our readers want; instead, to write the novel of our heart. Not so with landscaping. I have to design a front-yard plan offering
curb appeal to ‘enhance’ our neighborhood vibe, and entice prospective
buyers. That’s a lot of stress! A good thing: samples of front yard plans
(Xeriscaping) abound. I can’t ‘copy’ someone
else’s novel, but I can reproduce every aspect of someone else’s
landscaping. The degree of ‘sharing’ in
the yard redo business is phenomenal.
I’ve gathered pictures
that please me on my Landscaping Pinterest. https://www.pinterest.com/rolynna/rolynns-landscaping/
We have a California Ranch style home, so I’m going for palms, yucca,
agave, and succulents. Some varieties of
these plants are not frost tolerant, and though we rarely have freezes here, I
still have to make sure all my plants can handle frost/freezing temperatures.
My writing has suffered
because of this project, yet I’m exercising my imagination with every step of
the project. And who knows, maybe my
next mystery could center on a landscape architect. Stay tuned as I slog through this
process...and let me know how/if you have handled a front yard makeover!
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17 comments:
Wow, that's quite a project, Rolynn. I had to redo my townhome's little front "flower bed" and it took me months to figure out what I wanted. Even now when I change out my annuals with the seasons (spring and fall), it takes me forever to pick what I want. I'm sure your new front yard will look stunning when it's done! I love the analogy to the blank pages of a story. I agree!
Great analogy, Rolynn. That's quite a project. When we built our new house (four years ago), landscaping (minimal) was included. I swapped a couple of bushes and requested different perennials. (They wanted to plant day lilies, and I was bringing my own from our old house. I asked for flower beds for the other plants I was bringing. The landscaper did a decent job. Oh, and they planted one tree in the front yard. One tree, big whoop! Since then we bought 2 trees for the back yard and had the nursery plant them. The days of DIY are over for us. We wanted minimal care so we planted perennials with a few annuals for all-summer color and LOTS of mulch to keep down the weeds. Good luck with your project. I hope it turns out the way you want it.
A gigantic endeavor and a lot of work but it still sounds like fun. I always liked "playing in the dirt" as FDW calls anything related to yard work. He does not. Now that we RV it, gardening is limited to the few I have at the site we keep year round in AZ. It does require some planning because even though you may plan a novel, you can still rip out whole chapters and rewrite if needed. That isn't an option in my opinion with the yard. Although, in MN I would move around a few plants every spring to better suit me. Good luck! And you really do need to use at least some of you upcoming experience in a novel.
We had a young man from a religious college here in Lynchburg and our next door neighbor to redo our front yard. New grass. New bushes. Three new trees. Only the trees have survived. I've had to replace every shrub and reseed the yard every year. We've got the "red earth of Tara" here in Virginia. It's like smeary cement. I think you'll enjoy your new yard. Your plans sound great.
Leah, I've always wanted to try one of those many-layered, multi-colored flower gardens. I love to arrange flowers...and yearn for a cut-flower garden. The scale of this project is daunting, for sure..and the prices of an 'older' tree...unbelievable. Our wallet grows thin by the moment!
Diane, my objective is to stop maintaining the half acre by myself...ending 17 years of 'me as gardener.' The guy doing all this work will be my 'maintainer'...my goal is to have him do the work every other or every three weeks, also cutting cost on the once-a-week maintenance schedule we used to have. We'll see...
Brenda, like you, I enjoy watching stuff I've planted thrive. There's this cool succulent called a String of Bananas...I bought the plant to spill over some tall planters. Love them...and all I do is clip off a string and stick it in the soil and they propagate immediately. CA is a wonderful place to grow things...the plants are so happy!
Vonnie, your soil sounds scary. Most nurseries provide a guarantee with their plants...you've reminded me I better get that with the trees and bushes I buy. I won't miss re-seading, thatching, fertilizing and weed treatments in our front yard. I still have some grass in the back yard, but as long as I can keep it looking green, I'm not going to bother with it much. Here in CA, stuff grows breathtakingly fast...especially weeds...so my garden guy is going to be battling with them on his own from now on. My 17 years as gardener are done.
I live in a far different CA. Even in a drought year of epic proportions, I have a little snow in my yard right now. Last year I had 10 feet. My husband likes to mountain bike in the summer, not mow grass. Our yard has a bunch of thimbleberry bushes in it that grow wild and require zero maintenance. They add greenery in the late spring/summmer and color in the fall, when there's no snow on the ground. Huge trees (cedars and firs) surround the house. Basically, I can't be bothered with the expense of landscaping or the work of maintaining a traditional yard. But I wish you luck in your gardening endeavor!
You've spoken of thimbleberries before, Jannine. I had to go look them up. I see you can make jam out of them as well as eat them ... the wild berries, that is. How convenient. I do understand when the wilds are your yard, best to leave nature take its course. I wish I had that luxury...my neighborhood has pristine yards...I gotta match the 'look' for my house to retain value. Sigh.
Wishing you the very best luck with this project, Rolynn. Scares the bejeebers out of me just thinking about it. We moved into our current house, newly built and sans any landscaping, about forty years ago now. We did the grass, trees, flowerbed thing then. What a monumental task. Then had to dig up said flower beds a few years ago for remodel, expansion. I have my mother’s peonies and iris still growing, although in various locations over the years. And put annuals in pots I strategically (yeah right) set around in the spring and summer. Road construction did a number on our lawn that is yet to be returned to its original state. We’ll see what the contractors do in the spring and go from there. Although, given your analogy...this who experience would make for a good storyline....Yes?
Re-doing your whole landscape is a such mammoth undertaking. I've been where you are--in fact, I'm still there. Unlike a book, a landscape is a continuous WIP. When we moved to CA five years ago, we bought a wreck of a house in a fabulous location and rebuilt it from the studs out. We also had to completely re-do the landscape. I had the lot bulldozed, saving only the specimen native trees and shrubs. I hired a landscaper who lived on the next street, figuring he would know what kind of plants would thrive in our microclimate (ended up spending about 27K). The whole thing is on drip irrigation--no grass. After four years, some plants are spectacular, some just surviving, and a number have died and been replaced. I keep tinkering with the varieties and placement, but on the whole, it's turned out to be beautiful. I get tons of compliments from the neighbors. Good luck, and have fun!
Vonnie, I thought the lousy soil was only in my part of Virginia! "Smeary cement" is a perfect description for what I have in the southeast! I'm used to the rich, dark soil of the Garden State (New Jersey). Geez, I wonder if that's why I can't seem to grow any kind of vegetable here! (I'll take any excuse I can get.) :_0
Margo, your landscape journey sounds difficult, adding the chaos of road constructions. The thing is, every time we drive up to our home, we are reminded of what doesn't/doesn't work. Grass, at least is a decent 'placeholder.' Without it, I'm twitchy!
Alison, yes, this is a WIP in progress...again I must remember this shouldn't be a sprint. I'm thrilled to hear a success story! And your price sounds reasonable for all that you did. We're getting some Cash for Grass ($1 per square foot up to 6,000 square feet) by getting rid of the grass and putting in drought tolerant plants. That should help a bit. I'd love to see a picture of your front lawn, Alison...how neat that you get compliments! I'm looking for a Wow! factor, since most of the front yards around here are ho-hum. Anyway, I'm glad to hear your success story...gives me hope!
Leah, I solved my problem of raising vegetables by purchasing a horse trough (a galvanized steel drinking trough you get at farm supply stores). I put it in a place where it's knee high...easy to work the soil, plant, etc. I can put in good soil and the veggies love it. Easy, peasy!
Oh wow, that looks like a huge project. I am dumb when it comes to landscaping. I can't imagine spending 150k, good grief!! Going to check out your pinterest page. Best of luck! Hope the writing doesn't suffer too much.
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