Outdoor alterations

Our front yard was frustrating us.  The fancy area under the bay window was just overwhelmed with shrubbery and a dead tree.  The juniper was taking over the front porch.  The neighborhood kids and dogs were treating it like a bus station, running through, dropping stuff, scattering river rocks and leaving dead bunnies.  (I'm presuming dogs were doing this, and not kids.  I was afraid that one day one of them would advance to dead cats, and then what would I have to do?)  And then there was the ornamental berry-of-some-sort tree.  Short, messy, and useless.  We couldn't walk under it, couldn't trim it so we could, and it dropped nasty red berries that nothing would eat or touch.  And in the spring when it bloomed flowers?  NASTY smelling stuff.  The perennials under the tree were also driving me nuts.  ONE flower would sprout and bloom.  Then a different flower would sprout and bloom.  Why would you plant just one of each?  Argh.

So we made a decision and called a landscaper.  EVERYTHING along the front of the house got torn out.  Trees, holly bushes, whatever the other three bushes were, and all.  Then we went after the cherry, and replaced it with a Norway Maple.  Then we added a low brick wall along the front edge, getting rid of the river rocks and extending the bricks under the spruce all the way across.  We added an upright Mugo Pine to the empty corner, and lined the edges of the lawn with pyracantha bushes, which will eventually be trained into a nice evergreen hedge.  Drift roses went under the bay window.  

Fortunately we didn't have to touch the other side of the driveway.

Now that everything's finally in place, we can concentrate
on restoring the lawn.

drift roses

Drift rose