We just recently bought our first home. The previous owners were not too good at keeping the yard work up to date now the beds and badly overgrown. Any pointers or tips on making it look nice, what tools to use or anything at all would be awesome!!! Our house ( photo / image / picture from Mrs.Eyring's Garden ) [/img]
Hi, we are in Texas, too. This is NOT the time of year to renovate a lawn! Wait until cooler and wetter weather, probably October. Regular mowing helps, letting the grass stay at a 3" height. When the weather cooperates, a light fertilizing with a low nitrogen/high potash (phosphorus) fertilizer will help the grass get through winter. Then in early spring (February?) another dose of fertilizer, this time one higher in nitrogen will help it even out and green up. From your photo we can't tell anything about your "beds". Could you please post photos of each so we can see what plants you are dealing with? As for tools, you will need a good walk-behind lawn mower, a garden rake, a leaf rake, a sturdy shovel, and a pair of pruning shears. Buy the best you can afford because garden tools take a lot of abuse and use.
I will once I get Back home. Sorry it was the only photo I could find of the front. Just wanting to get ideas now so when the time comes I will know what to do. We are not planting anything just yet.
I can't offer any advice on how to get that front lawn under control... but that would be my first priority. And then pretty it up with lots of flowers in Spring. Congrats on your new home... and welcome from SE Texas.
I had a similar situation when I moved into my house back in October of last year. The lawn is mostly weeds, but when when it's green and mowed it looks OK for the moment. The flower bed in front was where I focused my main attention this season. I decided to remove the boxwood, salvaged a rose bush and a daylily, and everything else was chosen and planted from scratch, after I amended the soil. So far so good! When you're ready, there are many knowledgeable folks here who can walk you through whatever you need. I sure couldn't have done what I did without them!!
Ronni, you are too kind! You have a natural eye for color and composition, and your new flowerbed in front shows it (and your deck isn't bad, either!). Mrs. E., there is a list of hardy, low-water usage perennials at: http://tpid.tpwd.state.tx.us/index.asp On the left side of the page, do a search on your county. It's a good start for deciding what you want to plant.
I'm sure you will have it looking as good as new in no time thanks to the help on Garden Stew Be sure to share your pictures with us when it imporves, good luck
side ( photo / image / picture from Mrs.Eyring's Garden ) front ( photo / image / picture from Mrs.Eyring's Garden ) front ( photo / image / picture from Mrs.Eyring's Garden )
You have a lot of cleaning up to do, huh? Do you like those plants? Do you want to keep them? Or would you rather rip them out and put in something else? I don't know much about hedges, but I bet someone else will come along and tell you what they are. Then you can do some research and see if you'd like to keep them are not. Good luck!
Mrs. E, that first picture--all grass and doesn't have anything to do with the landscape--just a rectangle bordered by bricks. Too small and stuck into the yard (can you tell I'm suggesting getting rid of it? ). The other bed--the three small shrubs in front of the double windows look kind of puny. If you aren't real fond of them, they can go and get replaced by one small shrub right at the end of the bed in front of the brickwork. The big shrub looks healthy and just needs a bit of gentle pruning. Don't make a big meatball of it, just nip it back a bit to get it in proportion to the house. However, if it were mine (and it's not, so just take this as an opinion) I'd take out all the shrubs except the one on the end, plant another at the opposite end to balance, and put colorful plants, and plants that have different shades of green, in the intervening space.
That is a lot of grass in those beds. Is it growing into the shrubs? If it is I would pull it away from the shrubs as much as possible. If you want to have beds this is the method I have been using the last several years and love it. Use multiple layers of cardboard (far superior to landscape fabric in my humble opinion) to cover the bed right up to the trunks of the shrubs. Make sure there isn't any uncovered weeds. After you've laid the cardboard cover it up with a thin layer of your favorite cheap regional mulch (pine needles, bark, etc.). If you live where it is windy use large pieces of cut wire coat hangers made into "u" shape and pierced through the cardboard to hold it down. Now you can take a break and think about flowers. The beds will be looking clean and mulched with minimal effort. It will take no more than 8 weeks to totally kill the weeds, and if there has been adequate moisture the cardboard will have started breaking down. I use an old serrated kitchen knife I got at the Goodwill for cutting an "x" in the cardboard to open a small area in the mulch to dig-in/plant any plants. I have used this method for large sections of my yard to create and renew beds. When you use the smother method you don't stir up weed seeds. Weeds that do start are dropped by birds and are fewer and easy to pull if gotten early. No matter what mulch you use nature makes mulch/dirt on top of it over time. With this method you never have the agony of having to pull up a huge sheet of fabric/plastic weighted down with weeds,etc. I am currently collecting boxes for my new veggie raised beds that I hope to have ready for next spring. All of my woodland garden was accomplished using this method. Whatever you decide to do I'm sure you will have it the way you want in a season or so.
I vouch for Netty's cardboard-weed/grass-smothering-method. I've done fairly large sections this way. So much easier than trying to dig out grass/weeds. And so much easier to maintain.
