"Spring" has been pretty busy with both work and my personal life! I say "spring" because while technically spring is here, it doesn't feel like it in Michigan. We have still been experiencing highs in the 30's and yesterday there was a fresh dusting of snow on the ground and I had to scrape the ice off of the windshield. I'll say, I'm not a huge fan of scraping ice and I don't usually have to, but my husband took my SUV out of town for work so I'm driving his truck, which doesn't fit in our garage (which is strange because our house is only 20 years old and has three stalls). So much to my displeasure, after searching his cab for a scraper, then our garage I finally found it in the bed of the truck and tried my best to scrape the ice off, which is particularly hard on a full size truck and I'm not even a short person. It does look like we might see the mid 60's for a couple days before we drop back to the 40's. As we wait for spring I'll continue to day dream and think up plans on how to landscape our new house for the first time!
Another thing I get from my Nona is her love for her landscaping and yard! I remember every year, on one of the first warm weekends the mulch delivery truck would be dumping a huge pile in the driveway. My Poppy (grandpa) would load the wheelbarrow over and over dumping piles for us to spread. When Chris and I got our first house, which was much smaller than my grandparents, we went to Home Depot, got our 10 bags of mulch and thought we were set. Boy were we wrong and after that year we never went back to bag mulch and we just committed to the bulk order. If you're local to Brighton, we have been using the company Leppek Landscape and will continue to use them at our new house. Their pricing is the best out of the local options and they also don't have a minimum quantity for delivery, which is great because we can usually get by with less every other year as the brown color we choose is really natural and long lasting.
Here's a picture of our first house, showing off it's lovely landscaping! You can see we have a variety of annuals and perennials. We were very lucky to have a lot of perennials pop up our first spring at this house. There were a lot of Hosta's, daylillies and one very big iris. I had to get my green thumb on and split and replant a lot of the perennials because they weren't spaced very uniformly and just needed some maintenance in general. There were also two Japanese maples, notice how you only see one, I had to get rid of the other. *Gasp* I know, I know, what am I crazy? In my defense, it was to the left of the sidewalk as you walk up to the front door, it blocked the view of the front yard from the living room and I know they are expensive trees but to be perfectly honest I am not a huge fan of them, they just aren't that pretty!
So in addition to the perennials, we planted a hydrangea that I just adored, you can see that on the far right in the picture above. We also planted azaleas last summer and then yearly planted begonias on either side of the sidewalk as you approach the door in addition to the pots I put together yearly and scattered them throughout the landscaping (front and back). You can see our pretty brown mulch, hydrangea and a little bit of the pots in the two pictures below. 💗
Let's not forget the New Mexico state flower, the yucca, as seen in the picture below, in true yucca fashion. I tried to get rid of it, but if you've ever had a yucca you know it's pretty impossible to stop them so you might as well just learn to love it because you'll have it forever.
Here's a reminder of what our new house looks like, I definitely need to trim up those bushes on the left, do a general cleanup of last year's dead plants and create my pots (thriller, spiller and filler style) but I don't have definitive plans for the rest of our landscaping. I'm hoping perennials will pop up in a few weeks (if warm weather ever comes) that I can work with so I don't have to buy everything new!
I've still got a lot to learn, but here are my few tips for beautifying the outside of your home and creating curb appeal:
- Buy mulch in bulk - it's much better to have a real thick layer of mulch than spotty coverage. You can also use any extra you have in the bottom of your pots. This is great for two reasons, mulch is really good for plants and it makes your pots weigh a LOT less, making them easier to carry and move around your landscaping than filling it with dirt does!
- Work with what you have - don't be afraid to split your perennials. They are generally pretty hardy and it's much cheaper to fill your beds with plants you already have than buying all new, it also helps create a cohesive look to use several of the same type of plant throughout your landscaping.
- Pick weeds as often as you can - if you spend just a few minutes picking weeds every few days, your landscaping will look very maintained and you'll save yourself hours later when you realize a jungle of things have grown that don't belong.
- Use colors that pop - I generally think yellow and white can be seen best from the street, try to mix some white and/or yellow in to grab the eye.
So while we wait for Spring in Michigan, leave a comment and tell me what your favorite part of spring is! What are your favorite perennials and annuals? What landscaping or gardening tips and tricks do you swear by? If it's already spring for you where you live what have your spring projects been so far?
Love,
Britt
