HOUSE Simple Garden Plan for Spring

Have you ever noticed when I share a picture of the front of the house it looks like this?

Close in.

Not pulled back.

You don’t really see much of the yard or the overall front of the house.

There’s a reason for that {hangs head in shame}.

I want us to still be friends.

And if you saw the yard you might think twice. It’s been a tough season for the yard and the beds and the general vegetation here at the house. We had a snowstorm and two big freezes after everything started to bloom and then there was hail and a TON of unexpected rain.

The six-foot pittosporum hedge row in the front garden beds bit the dust. The boxwoods shriveled up. The St. Augustine grass withered and went away leaving behind dirt. Even the almost indestructible liriope left the building.

Sigh.

But this is 2024.

A new year.

A new plan.

And a WHOLE BUNCH OF NEW PLANTS that look like this.

So here’s what the ouside of the house looks like.

WAIT.

Just kidding.

That’s not where I live anymore.

That’s Kentucky—where the grass is always green and everything grows in abundance.

Now? I live in Texas.

In a house that looks like this.

This is the house on the day we bought it back from the couple my mother sold it to.

This picture was taken in October so the grass is getting a little brown and there are a few scattered leaves.

But look at how full and amazing the grass is.

And can you see the pittosporum hedge? It’s full and tall and so pretty even if there are a lot of overgrown plants around it.

We’ve done a little work on it since that photo was taken.

The house has a new roof and new gutters and the porch has been painted. There are new shutters and a new paint color.

And we’ve cleaned out the beds and defined them a little more.

This picture was taken last spring after we lost the pittosporum hedge while we still had a little grass (it turned green after this).

This was the house this past Christmas.

Look at that yard.

Sigh.

Double sigh.

That green stuff is basically weeds covering the dirt.

But now? There’s hope. We had a sprinkler system put in and seeded the yard with Bermuda that loves the sun.

The yard is slowly coming and is looking better and better especially now that we have the sprinkler system for regular watering.

You can see how much better the yard looks here.

We still have far to go my friends, but this picture was taken several weeks ago and it looks TONS better now. The entire front yard has pretty much filled in and the yard on this side of the side walk is only about 50% dirt.

I’m showing you this picture because this is the mock up of the new beds.

We are working with the most AMAZING company called Southern Living Plants. They helped us put together this entire planting plan for these sad, neglected beds. Southern Living Plant company is so well known for beautiful, quality plants that are designed to last.

And lasting is what we need around here.

You can see there will be three layers of plants in the beds (I’ll show you the exact plants in a moment). The front beds are 10″ deep so there’s plenty of room for rows of plants.

Here are the plants for the left and right front beds.

There’s a Crape Myrtle on the left hand corner to anchor the space.

The existing boxwood in the front beds will be moved to the back of the house to fill out those beds.

There will be three rows of plants. Closest to the house, there will be a row of Abelia with a row of Ever White Agapanthus in front of that and then a row of the prettiest creeping Boxwood in front of that.