I showed y’all a few days ago how I had our landscape design plan printed and mounted so that I can frame it and display it on the wall by my desk in the studio. I’m very excited to have this beauty displayed in a prominent place where I can look at it and be inspired by it often.
But I actually ended up redoing the layout, and I plan to have it reprinted. I don’t know why I didn’t think of it the first time around, but I’d really like to have the printed and displayed version to have the plant legend on it. I considered printing it separately and displaying it in a separate frame, but after playing around with some options, I decided that I prefer the legend and the landscape plan to be printed and framed together. And since the plant legend has to be printed on the same 36 x 48 paper, it would cost the same whether I print it separately or have the whole thing printed again.
So the new one will look like this…
Yesterday at lunch, my mom and I were talking about landscaping, and I started thinking and dreaming about the landscaping that I hope to get done this year. I’ve put off landscaping for far too long, and I’d love for this to be the year that I can actually get some plants in the ground.
There’s no way I can tackle the entire plan. Landscaping our entire lot will be a decade-long plan along with lifelong maintenance and care. But the immediate plan that I want to focus on is getting things planted around the front of the house and on the studio side of the house.
There’s a whole lot going on there! So I took some time to look up each one of those plants on the plant legend to see what plants the landscape designer had suggested. One challenge we have is that our huge oak tree in the front yard shades most of the front yard during most of the day. The only part that gets direct sunlight for a large part of the day is the area in front of the studio.
Here are the plants that he suggested for the areas along the front of the house and on the studio side. I’m pretty sure I got all of them, but as I said, there’s a whole lot going on there, so there’s a chance I may have missed one. The red and blue circle in front of the breakfast room windows isn’t on the legend, but that’s a water feature. Here are the plants…
As I’ve been driving around town and taking notice of landscaping, I’ve come to realize that I prefer planting beds that have a little more space between the plants, and that include things like big rocks and some plants planted in huge above-ground planters. So while I do plan to use this plan as a general guide, I probably won’t use the sheer number of plants that he suggested.
So yesterday, I told my mom that as I tackle each section of this landscape design, and before I start buying plants, I’m going to do a little crowd sourcing for information. Since I’m coming at this completely ignorant about plants (I mean, I can’t even identify the most basic plants that most people can name), I’m going to rely on all of you for information. I now some of you live and breathe plants each and every day. I also know that I can contact organizations in my area who will know specifically about this zone. But since y’all are so many, and such an unbelievable resource for information, I want your input first.
In the past when I’ve shown the landscape plan, I know that some of you have warned me about specific plants. Maybe they’re invasive. Maybe they’re harmful to specific wildlife like butterflies or hummingbirds. Or maybe one is susceptible to some kind of plant disease, but there’s a great alternative. I can’t remember, and at the time, I was still in that “dreaming” phase, so that kind of specific information overwhelmed me. I didn’t take any notes.
But I’m ready now to start taking this seriously. I’ve got my notepad ready to write down some notes. I’m ready to move beyond just dreaming about this plan to actually putting some of it into place. As soon as I’m done with my studio, I want to get my hands into some dirt and start getting the bed along the front of the house ready for plants. And I want to be ready to purchase plants and get them into the ground.
So, give me all of your knowledge about the plants he suggested for the front bed that wraps around the front of the house. What do you know about those plants? Any warnings? Suggestions? Let me hear it!
Addicted 2 Decorating is where I share my DIY and decorating journey as I remodel and decorate the 1948 fixer upper that my husband, Matt, and I bought in 2013. Matt has M.S. and is unable to do physical work, so I do the majority of the work on the house by myself. You can learn more about me here.
