Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Spring Symphony

We've had to give our lawn a very bad haircut to take care of some evil crab grass, but the pretty trees are back!  The other day I was admiring our handy work (not the gouges in the lawn) and thought it was high time we did a photo journey over the last few years.  

We started with some dirt (not to be confused with soil):


We attended a few landscaping classes and I bought (and read) books on flowers and trees.  It helped that I was working on Temple Square - I got to know what was blooming when and etc.  I decided to do an oval of grass surrounded by flower beds.  Then I had Brian do 95% of the work.  Here's the same view three and a half years later:


I found a sketchbook the other day that had this layout drawn a dozen or so times with all kinds of different plantings.  We chose four Prairiefire Crabapple trees - three on the east side and one on the west.  One book advised me to arrange all plantings (trees and flowers and even rocks) in a triangle.  Our landscaping teacher also told us that everything should lead to the front door in an inviting way - as though the front door is a stage.  Most of our flowers are perennials and we lined the east side by the neighbor's driveway with bridal veil bushes.  Here's a shot from Spring 2008:


I love tulips.  I'm willing to do a lot of work to have a yard full of tulips. When I first discovered that the crabapple trees bloomed after the bulk of the tulips I was disappointed.  Now I love it.  That means we have a constant show.  First the daffodils and hyacinth, then the tulips, followed by the trees, then the peonies, etc.  Makes me wish we lived across the street from ourselves. 

Here is a view from last year:

That color is true, by the way.

Did I mention the daisies on the corners?  They're about to take over the world (same thing they do every year), but while they're blooming in July it's pretty spectacular (this is a photo from 2008):


Now if only I could win the lottery and fix up the backyard.

5 comments:

melissa said...

Now that I don't have a crew of maintenance workers to do all of my lawnwork, I'm even more impressed with your beautiful yard. It always looks so nice and you are an evil genius ("same thing we do every night") for knowing what to plant and where.

Jill said...

Seriously beautiful. I have got to get into yard work one of these days. My yard isn't very inspiring though. I have to do some major work to do. Someday.

allyn said...

will you please come visit me and redo my yard. there's a lot already planted. you could tell me what to pull and replace. it would be so fun. c'mon already.

koryn said...

The first picture of your home is very familiar to me at this point. However, our dirt, not soil, was not so nice!

Your lovely yard gives me hope, that is if I can convince Jer it is worth it! After the 95% work to Brian, Jer may not be willing!

hOLLIANN said...

That looks wonderful!