Cleaning Up the Deck and Starting Front Yard Landscaping

Happy May, everyone! This weekend was filled with gardening: I landscaped the front of the house, as well as cleaned up the front and back decks.

Starting to Landscape the Front of the House

I wanted to get the very front of the house planted with shrubs, so I went to Lowes to pick out plants. I knew I wanted Knockout Roses as the flowering shrub since they are very low maintenence and bloom from spring to frost. Knockout roses generally come in pink, but I found a few that had coral-colored blossoms! I’m curious to see how they will do with the shade from the house; it was listed as needing full-sun, but I figured I’d give them a shot anyway.

After picking up the Knockout Roses, I looked around for a good non-flowering shrub to go between them. I ended up going with barberry bushes because they have pink foliage in the summer and fall that I thought would compliment the roses. It’s also very deer resistant, which is a plus! Although, after doing some research for this article, I learned that barberry bushes are invasive in the United States. I already bought and planted them, so I’ll do some more research before buying something else with which to replace them.

Before and After

Here’s what the front of the house looked like before:

And here’s what it looks like now:

Future Plans

The plan for the future is to wrap the bed all the way around the right side of the house. That side of the house is north-facing and doesn’t get much sun, so I’ll need to decide on different plants than the front.

Cleaning up the Back Deck

The back deck was dirty, and the empty pots were filled with clover. So first, I moved the pots out of the way and swept (or, got Danny to sweep lol). Then, I went to Lowes yet again to get flowers to fill up the empty pots. Unsurprisingly, I went overboard and ended up getting more containers and more flowers. I even found a maple sapling in my garden beds that I replanted in a small pot to grow into a bonsai! I’ve always wanted to keep a bonsai, but never can keep up with watering it consistently enough for it to stay alive. So, I’m trying again!

Before:

After:

It still needs a little work cleaning up (maybe a power wash), but everything is repotted, topped off with soil, and watered thoroughly! I gave some height to the containers in the back by raising them up on stands. Below is the after picture labelled with what’s in each pot.

My Favorites

Apparently I’m really into dahlias this year. Here’s close up pics of the two I picked out so far:

Deck Planters

I filled the railing planters and put petunias in them. They should fill out pretty well and hang over the baskets, which is going to be so beautiful!

Cleaning Up the Front Porch

Cleaning up the front porch was pretty simple: I just had a couple of dead plants in the two containers. I needed partial-shade-loving plants for this part of the property since it doesn’t get much sun during the day (just in the mornings), so I picked out impatiens, a begonia, and a creeping vine.

Here’s a close up of the begonia and creeping vine:

And here’s a close up of the impatiens:

The trick now is going to be staying on top of watering and fertilizing. I’m keeping notes in my planner of when I fertilize, and I’m getting into the habit of checking on the garden and containers after work each day to see if they need water. I’m telling myself each day that it is satisfying and fufilling to nurture plants to life (including watering!). It’s going to be a good growing season! 🌸

So, what do you think? Post in the comments below, and be sure to give this article a like if you enjoyed it!