Yard Renovation Reflects a Colorful Personality

Sometimes I look at my own yard and wonder what I can do differently to spice things up. Maybe adding different plants, or color, or personality that says who I am will make enough of a change.

Too often when we decorate the inside of our homes we forget about the outside. Maybe my personality on the inside of my home is very colorful and contemporary but from the outside, no one would ever know from my landscape, or lack of landscaping.

Pat and John came to me a few years ago wanting just to clean up their landscaping and add some color. Pat's favorite color is yellow so I rearranged and removed a few shrubs and added a lot of yellow perennials like Coreopsis, Black Eyed Susan, Knock Out roses, Oriental Lilies, Euonymus ‘Blondy’ shrubs, Oak leaf Hydrangea “Honey” that has lime-yellow foliage and Missouri Primrose to her existing plants.

This added color but it didn’t really add her personality. The inside of their home is filled with contemporary bold bright colors set against white walls. Their home has a yellow leather recliner and a blue leather sofa with a round coffee table that has equally bold colors swirling around the table. Each step of the open staircase going up to the loft is painted a different bright color. Nothing dull and ordinary inside but the outside was a boring gray house that showed nothing of who Pat is.

I recommended she add unique items that say something about her. So, slowly Pat started bringing home items like a concrete bench with stained glass art on the seat, colorful metal flowers, a bold blue water fountain and colorful pottery to add into the landscaping. Now, you can get a feel of what is coming when their door opens to visitors.

The side by the garage was just overgrown. Removing the Viburnums and replacing with Yews gives the area a more open and cleaned up look. This is not the most exciting planting but much more controllable. Eventually the tall Yews will grow and almost repeat the tall narrow lines of the windows.

In the back yard there were Liriope plants lining each side of a walkway that leads to a patio by the lake. They looked ok but then a mole tunneled through the bed uplifting many of the plants and ultimately killing them so they were left with about half the Liriope of what was there before.

I removed and replanted the best looking Liriope around the yard and trashed the scraggly ones, then replaced them with gray rock that is easy to weed. Now Pat could place some of her unique and colorful garden art of metal flowers and colorful pottery in their place. These two areas of rock look like dry creek beds that flow into the lake.

Overall their yard has more of the yellow color Pat loves and shows off her personality through the vibrant and whimsical art that fills their home.

If you are interested in gardening, learning about gardening or joining a garden club, stop by the Community Association Clubhouse, the second Monday morning of each month and sit in on a meeting of the Jardin du Lac Garden Club.  Meetings start at 9:30 a.m.

If you have a beautifully landscaped yard or have unique garden ornaments that you are proud of and would like to see featured on Patch.com, or have any gardening questions, contact Peggy at Bahrmasel@msn.com.