Curb Appeal

We have lived in our lovely first home for almost a year now (!!), and have made some awesome improvements.  Here is a little picture history of how our front yard has improved:

When we moved in last summer, we had the ugliest yard in the neighborhood.  We inherited a completely dead lawn, happy weeds, overgrown shrubs, root-suckering wild roses, dying aspens, and more rocks than sense.

Job # 1 was to remove the clump of dying aspens and a small misshapen, storm-damaged honeylocust.

Job # 2 remove the overgrown shrubs, web of aspen roots, and rocks, and rocks, and more rocks.  We also hired a contractor to build a railing along our front porch. 

Next, we hired a landscape contracting company to install a sprinkler system and build a small stacked-stone planter bed in front of the porch.  To save money, we installed the plants ourselves.  We chose one small ornamental tree (weeping red Japanese Maple), one semi-evergreen shrub good for fragrant early spring flowers, and three partial-sun tolerant perennials.  We also applied fescue/bluegrass seed blend to the soil.

 

Finally, we installed drip/spray emitter heads for the plants in the raised bed, added a dozen more perennials for additional color and interest, and mulched it all.  In early May, our roof was damaged in a hail storm, and required a complete roof replacement.  Two days ago, we had a new 30-year roof installed.  The plants are happy, the grass is starting to come up, the irrigation system works, and we have some serious curb appeal now.