Now that everything is green again I’m excited to share some recent pictures of our front yard and porch! The picture on the house tour page is actually from the listing when we bought the house, and a lot’s changed since then.

Then:

Now:

The biggest change is that we tore out the two big holly bushes and monstrous clump of ginger. Because while it looked pretty good in the listing picture, this is what we actually inherited:

That ginger was not looking so hot. And it was just so crowded in there! So we tore it all out and I planted some hydrangeas. The thing is, though, that the hydrangeas found it a bit too sunny there and they were always begging me for water, so I moved them out and moved in some aspidistra. I know these tiny little clumps look pathetic. I’m planning to bring in some more the next time I see them at the nursery.

I’m really new to this gardening thing and just basically learning as I go along. I moved the hydrangeas to the other side of the yard where they’ll get more shade from the oak tree. It looks really sunny here, but I promise it isn’t. This picture was taken at about 6pm, when the sun was really low in the western sky and no longer shaded by the oak.

You may also notice that the middle hydrangea decided not to rejoin us this spring. Oh well, two out of three ain’t bad.

And speaking of our oak tree, here she is:

I love her. This is how she looks from our upstairs window:

Makes me want to build a treehouse! But I’ll settle for the next best thing, our front porch:

I love this space. I’m particularly attached to the swing because my PawPaw made it for my parents when he still did a lot of woodworking and they generously passed it on to me. I gave it two coats of exterior semi-gloss in Valspar’s base white.

So here are my hopes and dreams for the front yard and porch:

• a big window box full of colorful annuals under that double window that overlooks the front yard
• plant more aspidistra under the window box!
• replace the two sago palms flanking the steps with a pair of gardenias
• paint the porch floor and front steps gray
• paint the porch ceiling and front door a soft aqua
• bring in a big round pedestal coffee table
• add lots more potted and hanging plants
• add two more sweet olives in the little side yard to screen the view and make everything smell delicious
• move the mailbox from where it currently hangs on the fence up onto the porch. Our mail is always getting wet when it rains but I feel like I need to get the okey-dokey from the mailman before making him walk all those extra steps every day (our neighbors have theirs on the porch so I think the idea is not outlandish). Nick and I are both usually at work when he comes by so we’re waiting for a chance encounter.

So there’s our front yard and porch! I’m feeling a little inadequate looking at these pictures of last year’s grass. Any cheap and easy grass secrets out there?

P.S. I noticed in the pictures above that it looked like my hanging plants were hanging at different heights and, sure enough, the one near the rocking chairs was 3-4 inches higher than the other! But I couldn’t figure out why. Funny, I look at those plants every day and never even noticed until I saw them in a picture. I’m going to try to forget about it so it doesn’t bug me every day.

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