Dave and I have spent a large part of the past 3 summers (and springs and falls) doing some massive landscape renovations to our home. (Read this post for more information and LOTS more pictures!)
We removed over 500 brick pavers and a massive cement “patio” that was randomly in the middle of our backyard, we removed 30+ trees, we installed over 700 feet of fencing, and thousands (literally thousands) of trees, shrubs, and perennials. I honestly don’t think there is even one square foot of our 1-acre property that hasn’t been changed in some way!
Obviously, we hired out A LOT of the heavy lifting work as we are not qualified or capable to deal with concrete or tree removal. We also enlisted the help of a local landscape architect to draw out the plans for our yard and design various planting beds so everything looked nice once we were finished planting (NOTE: I’m purposely not linking to that company because they are no longer in business).
We definitely could not have transformed our landscape without a lot of help… even just from our parents coming over to watch the kids for a while so Dave and I could both go out and lay sod or dig up pavers or move plants around for an afternoon.
Just like the inside of our house, the landscaping has been a labor of love!
And just like the inside of our house, the landscaping is never truly “finished”.
We still have lots of plans to implement “eventually” but for this coming spring and summer, our main goals are:
- Planting and maintaining a MUCH larger vegetable garden next to our new shed.
- Spreading mulch (probably 30-40 yards — boo!)
- Planting a bunch of annuals for color all season long.
- Getting a new mailbox
- Keeping up with all the watering, fertilizing, weeding, mowing, and other maintenance tasks (especially for the new plants that were just planted last season)
While I’m sure the shortlist above will keep us busy all season long, it’s nice to know that we (hopefully) won’t have any major landscaping projects on our plate this year!
As you can imagine, the long cold Michigan winters make the first few spring blooms even that much more exciting. And although some of our plants will still be smaller this year, I have a feeling that many of our plants will really start to mature and fill in this coming spring and summer (it will be the 4th growing season for about half the plants).
I’ve been asked over and over and OVER again if I would share a “Master List” of all the trees, shrubs, and perennials we planted… and since that would actually be really helpful for me to look back on as well, I figured it was time I compiled a list.
So, since spring is practically just around the corner (wishful thinking, maybe!) I’ve decided to share that list today!
:: ORNAMENTAL TREES ::
- Ornamental Pear (3)
- River Birch
- Crab Apple (2)
- Arborvitae (6)
- Juniper (5)
- Flowering Dogwood
- Hydrangea Tree
- Redbud
- Spruce (5)
:: SHRUBS ::
Almost ALL of these are flowering shrubs.
- Serviceberry (1)
- Limelight Hydrangeas (21)
- PeeGee Hydrangeas (6)
- Starburst Hydrangeas (18)
- Boxwoods (22)
- Rhododendron (3)
- Azalea (3)
- Holly (3)
- Potentilla (3)
- Spirea (18)
- Double Blooming Knockout Roses (32)
- Deutzia (18)
:: GRASSES ::
- Hamelyn Grass (9)
- Japanese Forest Grass (3)
- Maiden Grass (3)
:: PERENNIALS ::
I have no idea how many of each of these we have — LOTS and LOTS!
SUN
- Iris (several varieties)
- Daylily (several varieties
- Tigerlily (several varieties)
- Peony
- Salvia
- Snowcap Daisy
- Dianthus
- Pink Coneflower
- Purple Coneflower
- Coreopsis
- Phlox (ground cover)
- Coral Bells
- Blackeyed Susans
- Sedum (several varieties)
- Geranium (ground)
SHADE
- Astilbe (several varieties)
- Ferns (several varieties)
- Bleeding Heart
- Hosta (several varieties)
- Coral Bells (several varieties)
- Nepeta (catnip)
:: FRUIT ::
We currently only have 3 rhubarb plants… but we are hoping to plant a bunch of strawberries this spring, and eventually maybe expand to raspberries, blueberries and potentially even some grapes!
I’ve always ALWAYS wanted to have dwarf fruit trees, but unless we want to turn our entire front yard into an orchard, I don’t think I’ll get that wish at this house.
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I originally thought about trying to show pictures with each of the names — but then I realized that would take me FOREVER, not to mention I probably don’t have specific pictures of each individual plant.
So instead, I would advise you to do a simple Google search if you are wondering what a particular plant looks like 🙂
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Also, it’s probably worth noting that we are zone 5 — so, unfortunately, lots of plants are not winter-hardy in our climate.
We mainly try to stick to plants that ARE winter-hardy and will come back year after year, however, I do spend about $50 – $75 on annuals each year (from the discount rack after they get cheaper so I can buy more). I use these to add bright pops of color to various areas in front of the house, along the driveway, etc.
Hopefully, Nora will be excited to help me out in the yard again this year… who knows, maybe Simon and James will even be able to help!
Or maybe they’ll just play nicely together while Dave and I do yard work. I’d be happy with that too 🙂
Kristen says
Hi! How did you find a company that would come out to do a plant plan for you? Was there a cost? I’m trying to figure out how to go about finding a place that will help us plan but doesn’t require that they do the buying and planting. I just need some guidance!
Andrea says
Hi Kristen,
Aren’t the plans sweet! I love having the “blueprints’ for our yard.
That said, we got the blueprints with the intention that we would spend a significant amount of money on plants from that company (which we did!)
I’m currently not aware of anyone who will just do the plans without some type of contract for purchasing plants from them. HOWEVER, we did a lot of the planting ourselves (minus the ginormous tress that required professionals).
I’d contact a local garden center (like a greenhouse, not Lowes’ or Home Depot) and ask if they do design work. You might also contact a local agricultural college and see if they have any design students who you could “hire” (probably for a reduced rate) to give them some experience.
Those are just my ideas.
Also, we go our plans drawn up almost 8 years ago… and I have a feeling most of the plans done nowadays would be digital (which is a bummer because I LOVE our big rolled-up paper blueprint!)
Abbey says
Hey Andrea, is that just mulch like you use with the flowers also under your swing set!? We just moved and I’m trying to figure out what to put under the kids’ playhouse/swings. They like to wear sandals so I’m leaning away from wood chips that get stuck in their shoes but haven’t decided yet!
Debbie says
This is great! We’re in Zone 6 and it took hours to decide what plants we wanted to use in our backyard. We’re still continuing to think through what we could add since we don’t have any trees back there. We wanted minimal maintenance as possible and we lean toward modern style so it’s really hard to decide. I’ve thought about hiring a landscape architect, but just not sure who to contact that would work well for us.
Andrea says
hiring a landscape designer was crucial to our landscaping progress. If we hadn’t done that, we would probably still be trying to decide what to put where 🙂
Paulette says
Wow! I agree with Jean…that’s a tremendous amount of work and patience!!
Jean says
Hi Andrea! You amaze me on so many levels — that is a lot of work and patience to have achieved what you all have done. What kind of mulch do you use? There are so many choices, I am almost always at a loss to decide.
Andrea says
Thanks Jean! We just use the basic (cheap) Hardwood Mulch. No colors or dyes so it does fade, but it saves us a lot of money since we usually need to buy 40 yards of it!
Heidi says
Our small town has a facility where they offer free mulch/wood chips to the residents. We love it and keep them pretty busy all summer!
Andrea says
wow — that’s awesome!
Heidi says
It’s just recycled from the branches, trees, and other random stuff the town collects. Sometimes you find some random stuff in it and it’s not fancy, but it works! 🙂