New Landscaping: After photos with captions

As requested, some "afters" of the landscaping in the front of the house.  We wanted  to spruce up the front of the house, creating a little cohesiveness and style for our otherwise plain house.  I wanted some simple and clean, structured but not formal.  That sort of describes our overall style.  Basically, I like using classic lines but with a contemporary twist. Yesterday, we got the Edna Dolan Seal of Approval. My mother came by yesterday, with my sister Monica visiting from Portland, and the whole plan got the thumbs up.

This is the view towards our driveway. We completely cleared out the hodgepodge of plants, put in the pathway and then planted the Little Ollie olive hedge. I love the color of the olive branches and the looseness of the form. We'll let this grow without too much shaping for a couple of year. The pots and trellises are new, giving us some height on walls that don't get much sun. They are planted with star jasmine, a dark green year round with little scented whit flowers in summer. I like scent, hence the jasmine, lavender and gardenia.

 

Looking the other way, we used the same Little Ollie hedge to connect the two side of the house. This bed is a monster, I know. We needed to extend it to create an even line across the front of the house. We used the birdbath as a "anchor" and planted around it. Those are iceberg rose ( which grown like weeds here in Pasadena) gardenia, lavender and in the back, flowering maple in burgundy. The existing tree is a long established camellia.

 

The steps and front porch got a new look. We painted the old tired red brick a chocolate brown that works with the house color. then extended the step area with the same slate path. Berick also did the trim and front door a dark black/green. The little bed features a patio-sized orange tree and lavender.

 

We had this slate left over from a patio in the back yard. Berick and the boys have been moving the giant pile around periodically while we decided what to do with it. The boys were relieved just to finally put it somewhere permanently! railroad ties, a gravel "bed" and the slate fit together by Berick & Co.

Here is the little path to the bird bath, a gift from my boys a few years ago. I like to look out the window in the morning and see the birds doing their thing. The stepping stones will help me get into the bed and clean it out when I need to. It's a cloudy, cool day today, but this side of the bed usually gets full morning sun and then filtered sunlight in the afternoon. In the back, some more flowering maples set to go in. These are very popular here-- and kept getting snapped up as soon as they came into the garden center. We finally snagged two more this weekend.

 

In addition to the landscaping, Berick and boys have painted all the trim and the front door. (I am a terrible painter, slapdash with no prep skills whatsoever, so I've been banned from that aspect of the job.) We're almost done, but who knows?   Several  neighbors have stopped by to ask Berick to work on their places.

Embracing my Chaos, Lian