Front Yard Color
I’m not saying we started from the bottom, as the song goes… but we definitely did NOT start at the top and now we are HERE. Ok we’re not there - as in the point of complete cuteness and porch amazingness that I would like us to achieve. But here is a good spot - it’s got a fence, greenery I (mostly) don’t despise, and a porch that isn’t soggy.
Yes. When the folks who renovated our house got to the porch, they looked at it and said “Let’s add some plywood.” Wait, WHAT? Like on the outdoor surface? That gets wet? They added plywood — a material that is notorious for folding in damp conditions? Yes. Sadly. Yes. To the left you can see what the front of our home looked like in the listing photos when we purchased it. Can you say “zero curb appeal”?
We discovered as much when the porch started feeling SOGGY. Ew. By November, we’d gotten nervous. By December, we’d contracted a builder. By the end of February, I’d accidentally fallen through the porch with my foot (over which I put one of my hand orange cones). Fortunately, the builder was scheduled to work one week after I’d stomped through the sogginess. And work he did! In a mere two days, Keith yanked out every rotten board and replaced it with well-spaced, quality wood. We are so relieved! We took the chance to add a hand railing to the porch because I’ve always thought it looked both silly and unsafe without it. For the back of the porch by the swing, we opted for a green wall (more on that later as it grows).
Last spring, I pulled out all the ugly that I could, left a few of the larger greeneries in place, and set to work on bringing more pink into the world. You can tell I was fully in denial of the fact that palms don’t grow well in Tennessee by the recent purchase next to the door. We had yet to put up the swing or replace the door, but isn’t it already so much better?
This year, I wanted more color. I’d already updated the door to the door of my dreams (pink border around full glass window! and yes the natural life is SO worth it). I had plenty of pink. So I figured I’d start by seeing what stuck around from the year before: the tulips came back in March, the bushy broccoli lookin’ things returned and were full and happy, the hostas are doin’ the most. I still dislike the three brighter green buddies that get a little stringy and can turn yellow-red-orange-brown splotchy randomly. But I digress.
We turned to Gardens of Babylon for some inspiration. And now we want a moss wall. And we definitely are going to do some espalier with fruit trees that grow decently in Tennessee (Jackson has taken over as our residential not-in-denial-Reimers-in-charge-of-plant-selection).
We selected some perennials from GoB to accompany a few annuals that I’d gotten early at Homie Deeps (I knew the prices on hosta would be unnecessarily absurd at GoB). Below is our new porch (waiting to be painted and stained) with the greenery as it had grown back in this year. Ok, plus all the weeds!
And here is the update with our bits of color tucked in! I only had enough mulch for the smaller of the areas so I’ll be doing that later this week. Colors were inspired by the fading floral arrangement you can see on the sill: these were my sister’s anniversary flowers from her boyfriend, made by our fantastic florist neighbor across the street, Tara! Add to the some day list: cut flower garden.
Po clearly had a blast playing in the hose spray (his fave summer activity) and seems to know not to go into the garden box anymore. We’ll see if the NEW PUPPY we’re getting tomorrow can learn the same trick!
xo,
em
