New Landscaping!

After six weeks in the new house, we have completed our landscaping updates for now.  I still have a few things in mind that I'll tell you about at the end of the post, but it is such an awesome feeling to have this checked off our to-do list.  Completing this task in the hottest June/July on record thanks to a hovering "heat dome" has been a challenge.  The sprinkler system just doesn't cut it when you have new plants and grass in 100+ heat.  Here's a look at the progress on our yard at the new house.

Before

Here's the real estate listing photo of the front of the house.  It looked like the flowerbeds had taken a hit during recent freezes, and the owners hadn't replace the plants.  It looked well trimmed, but a little rough.

I planted this a few weeks ago, and everything is doing well!  The periwinkles/vincas in light pink love the full sun as long as I keep them watered.  The drift roses are really growing too.

A close up of the clusters of flowers on the drift roses

Here's a look at the other side with periwinkles, drift roses, foxtail ferns and lantana.

The lantana is thriving.

We also removed the stones from around the front trees.

Here's the before for the backyard.  We really thought we would keep the gravel with a firepit area when we bought the house.  But within a few days of living in the house, it just seemed so BROWN when we looked outside!

We contacted a friend with a landscaping company and asked them to remove the gravel and lay sod.  It was a big job, but they finished it in one day.  Of course that is with about 6 men working!  Here is the gravel they took away.  It was about 5 inches of gravel with a liner underneath.

After they cleared the gravel, they had to put in new sprinkler lines for the area.

And finally they laid down the new sod.  This time the sod arrived on a regular trailer, instead of on a big rig like when we had to redo the yard after Harvey.  The key to new St. Augustine sod is water, water, water!  The change from gravel to grass was a big expense, but I think it will be well worth it in our enjoyment of the yard.

The landscaping crew also planted two crape myrtles - one in each corner of the back yard.  They are about 8 feet tall right now.

There was a small flowerbed on this side of the garage that just seemed very awkward.  It made it harder to get the mower along this little pathway and didn't add much to the beauty of the front of the house.  The landscapers removed this flowerbed and just filled in with some of the removed gravel.  I like it much better now.

Two weeks after the sod was laid...it has really filled in, and we were able to mow.  We planted lots of new plants in the back flowerbed.  Jack and I went to the garden center on his day off and literally filled his truck with plants!  I can't wait to see how this all fills in over the next few months.  Let's take a look at some pictures of the back flowerbed, and then I'll show some close ups with the specific plants.

A hanging basket with trailing periwinkles

Dusty miller and geraniums

Dusty Miller, New Guinea Impatiens, etc

Variegated ginger for the partial-shade part of the flowerbed

Bottlebrush bushes

Knock out roses

Dinner plate hibiscus in dark red

White periwinkles, firecracker plants, and ixora bushes

Blue plumbago

Texas Sage, Rio Bravo variety

Texas Sage close up

Hibiscus

Most of these plants and bushes, aside from the periwinkles and firecrackers, will be up to 3-4 feet in size.  So as the bushes mature, the backyard will hopefully look really lush.  Also some of them are fairly freeze tolerant, and the ones that aren't are easy to replace.  My goal was to have a colorful backyard that will attract birds and butterflies.  These plants should bloom March through November!

Here are some things still on our landscaping to-do list:

-- Fall 2023 - Have trees professionally trimmed.  This will include having some of the roots cut since they are growing close to the surface.  You can generally cut one root per year.

-- Fall 2023 - New mulch in flowerbeds

-- Spring 2024 - Plant 4 roses in the back flowerbed.  I have left room in the landscaping for these traditional rose bushes.  

--Much later - replace the shrubs in the front flowerbed

I hope you enjoyed this tour of our yard at the new house!

A Few Previous Landscaping Posts

New House Yard Work 2010 (Part I, Part II, and Part III)

Fall Gardens 2010

Rose Garden in England 2011 and 2013

New Landscaping 2014

New Roses 2015

Post-Harvey Yard Update 2018

More Yard Updates 2018

Spring Landscaping 2023