Makeover: Cramped Porch to Welcoming Wide Steps

We are about 90% finished with the renovations to the front of our home and landscape, so I'm going ahead and posting some photos. The problem is, the 'before' photo (above) was taken when the plants were pretty and green, while the 'after' photos (below) still show winter landscape. I think you're supposed to do it the other way around, to emphasize how much better the changes look. But I tried to even things out by applying some photoshop trickery to make the 'after' photos look vintage and glowing . . . what do you think?



Here are the steps that Susan Morrison, the landscape designer behind Blue Planet Gardening, kindly suggested for our porch. You can see from the top picture that our small porch used to feel very cramped and dark, but the steps and stone column open it up and better balance the Giant Garage on the other side of our house. You might notice that the pink dogwood tree is no longer on the southwest corner of the porch - after watching it fry for 3 summers, hubby moved it to the east side of the house. I'm crossing my fingers that it survives. We're replacing it with a 'Kwanzan' cherry tree to match the other two trees in the front yard.



So has anyone else found that renovation projects never go quite as planned? It seemed like there was a little problem or two with each part of the project. The new concrete pad isn't quite level (should have asked for references). So the steps couldn't be quite level. The old composite decking was really faded, so the new planks don't match. Don't even get me started on the strange gutter setup - that's going to get changed eventually. We saved siding from the sides of the house when the masons added stone facing there and used it to replace the gingerbread accent siding above the garage. It doesn't quite match, as you can see, but new siding would have been even worse since it wouldn't have been faded at all. Hopefully the summer sun on our southern exposure will even things up over time. Fade, baby, fade!



The photo above nearly screams for plants to cover the bare dirt. Getting the rest of the plants in place will really make things look better. We have new lights and shutters sitting in our garage, but hubby has been too busy with other projects to put them up yet. Lately health problems have been slowing me down in the garden and on the computer (my posts might be sporadic for a while here). So all projects are moving along at a snail's pace.



This last shot shows the west garden with its new flagstone path and stone column. When we moved in, that west side was just a spot for the leftover plants that I didn't want in the front. But right now it's the garden that I'm most excited about, especially since our kitchen window looks out that way. I can't wait to enjoy looking at vividly colored blooms on either side of the flagstone while doing piles of not-so-enjoyable dishes.
Thanks again to Susan for the great steps idea. I hope to post pictures of the 100% finished project eventually . . .

Spring Photos!

Tulips! Crabapple blossoms! These photos capture the beauty of spring in my garden. But I have to confess that they were taken last year, and not by me.



My friend Jan Tenney visited my garden last May and snapped a few photos. She dropped them by last week, and they make me so excited for spring.



The garden will look very different this year. By next week I will be ready to post pictures of the newly completed front steps. They just need a couple of finishing touches before their photo op.



I'm looking forward to posting pictures of the rennovated west garden as well. We removed all the grass, put a flagstone path down the center, and I transplanted perennials to make matching borders down each side of the path. We also added a 3.5 foot tall (just over a meter) basalt column at the entry to the path.



I will have to post about our revamped sprinkler system, too. It should be much more efficient, and I am looking forward to less hand watering this summer.



But meanwhile, just enjoy Jan's spring photos. Aren't they delicious?

March Update

Last month I hit my 100th post and the second anniversary of my blog. Whoops, I guess I missed noting that. I was also out of town on my daughter's birthday. It was just that kind of month.



Out in my garden the yellow crocuses (or is it just crocus when plural?) started blooming a week or two ago. The purples ones are starting now. The hellebores seem permanenetly fixed in the bud stage. Delphiniums, bearded iris, the 'evergreen' daylilies and baby columbines are showing new green leaves.



We're continuing work on the front yard rennovation. It's a big mess where the front steps are being built. My little kids are getting good at climbing up on the porch without steps. The sprinkler modifications are about halfway done, and the concrete curbing guy is supposed to get here any minute. The west flagstone path and boulders might get set tomorrow.



I'm still trying to decide whether to go with black or grey-brown shutters, whether to get rain chains or rain-cup-chains (will the cups burst if water freezes in them?), and how wide to make the top of the post at the corner of the porch. I think I found some light fixtures that both my husband and I can live with. Best of all, they cost about a tenth of the price of the ones I was looking at online. Fewer bells and whistles, but less headache later if they get hit with a stray basketball or something.
So there's the update for this week, with a few random pictures from my archives. Orange dahlia, pink hydrangea, blue siberian iris and coral-pink azalea - all with a contrasty effect added in photoshop. Enjoy!