Previous Owner's Landscaping

This is a picture of the NE side of the house - with the entry area.

Here is the front yard island - or the "Island of Rocks" as we called it. The rocks (thank God) are no longer there!

So here is the landscaping that the previous owners had. It's pretty boring - manicured evergreens and shrubs accented with white tumbled rocks. The overall mood of the landscaping was very somber. The dark bushes against the dark house had no contrast.

Since the entry of the house is on the NE side of the house it perpetually in the shade. Nothing pops in the shade.

Before the Fall of '07 we had all the manicured evergreens on the left side of the entry removed and 2 truckloads of rock hauled away to make room for more lively plantings and mulch.

I'm going to call to the landscapers that hauled the rock away last year to find out how much 3 or 4 cubic yards of much and a partial truckload of topsoil will cost. Hopefully they can deliver it in the next week or so because I'd really like to start planting up the island and corner of the entry and covering it all with mulch. The soil is absolutly horrible! It's about 2 inches of soil and then you hit clay and rock. So I'm adding sand and peatmoss in with the soil to help with the drainage.

We also need to complete the retaining walls around the sidewalk to the door. before the soil comes.

Slowly the front yard is evolving into something much more NATURAL looking and is starting to feel "ours" rather than "theirs".

Spring has come...at a new address

Well, the past 9 months have been crazy hectic. We've moved to a new address - northwest of the city out in suburbia. We're still windy city gardeners at heart.

So the new house has many landscaping challenges - ton's of clay, poor drainage in spots, low spots, tree roots and a very sloped back yard. My initial plans for a large vegetable garden have been thwarted by these landscaping hurdles. This summer I'm just going to stick to growing my herbs and vegetables in a small plot with southern exposure and in containers.

Right now we have a couple projects going on - in the front I've expanded the island by about 10 feet lengthwise and need to have some topsoil and mulch delivered to build up the island. I'm trying to finish the short retaining walls on both sides of the front walk and am replanting the area directly in front of the main door. It used to be full or arborvitae and other "manicured' evergreens. I'm going for a more natural, perennial look accented with ornamental grasses and annuals.