Landscape your way with a simple plan
You love your home but the landscape is something to be desired. You have all of these ideas yet never have time or energy to implement them. You don’t want to spend money on plants that may or may not survive. I get it. But wouldn’t it be amazing to finally relax among some trees or a beautiful flowing garden that you walk by? I’ve been in your shoes so I understand.
But, no one says you have to do it all at once. And yes, you may make a mistake putting in the wrong plant but most places give you your money back within a certain amount of time. So take a chance and let me explain what I did to get over these hurdles.
Pick Your Landscape Area
First, I identified the area I wanted to change. My front walkway had these (in my mind) hideous bushes that were green on only one side. If you trimmed it back a bit, the leaves would be gone and all you would see are these brown branches. Not very appealing.
Some bushes were also huge and grew into one another. They were perfectly fine and healthy bushes but again they were too big. They also hid part of the windows on our house. I finally decided they had to go.
Mind you, many people struggle with the idea of ripping out perfectly good and GREEN bushes and shrubs. I had been living in this house for 5 years and finally had enough. I wanted to redo the landscape my way and wanted some color. Even though the evergreen bushes were green year round, I wanted to see some flowers! I was envious of my neighbors with their spring gardens and blooming pink, yellow and purple flowers.
Choosing plants
For my Mother’s 
Day gift, my husband took out the chainsaw and removed all the bushes from the front yard. I was so excited! Of course, I had to plan out what I wanted to put in its place before that. I went to the local nursery and picked out azaleas and daylilies. I wanted to keep it simple, have plants that require little to no gardening experience and still look beautiful. I had a walkway that wrapped around to the front door so I had 2 side gardens in the front of the house. I measured each garden and read the plant labels to determine how big each plan would grow. In the end, I put in 3 white azaleas and 5 daylilies in each garden.
Shade
My garden was also in part shade so I had to keep that in mind when picking out my plants. Luckily the nursery had plants divided by sun and shade so it was easy to go to the correct location. Daylilies also come in a variety of colors so be aware of bloom colors so they complement each other. White flowers go with anything so I chose yellow daylilies.
Blooming season
Each plant also bloomed at different parts of the season which made my garden in bloom during almost every season! I didn’t plan this but it worked out well. I also chose daylilies that bloomed multiple times throughout the season. Most daylilies only bloom once and for one day hence the name, day lily. But you would be amazed with what gardeners can do with plants to make them rebloom!
I was so happy to plant my new azaleas and daylilies. My neighbors came over and commented on how envious they were of MY new garden. And here I was trying to keep up with them! Anyway, I was so glad to get rid of the ugly bushes and create a landscape that was simple yet beautiful. I didn’t have to get complicated with 15 different plants like you see in the TV shows. As long as you pick out 2-3 different plants and repeat them, your garden will look like a professional did it.
So take a chance in your landscape. Pick one spot you want to change and change it. You might find the plant thrives in that spot or it may not but at least you tried. And again, don’t feel like you have to change everything at once. It will make you go crazy. Plant some bulbs in one spot, and then plants or shrubs in the next season and see how it looks. Once you see how the garden looks, it may motivate you to continue on to the next area. Good luck and happy gardening!