Yard makeover, stage 3

When we bought the place, there was one tree in the whole property — a bald cypress, in the northeast corner of the front yard. In July, this tree wasn’t too bad — it provided shade, and made a nice rustly sound in the wind. Later on, though, we found out it sheds. A LOT. Not just the leaves but also its hairy hide. Quite messy. I’m not a terribly big fan of this tree, needless (needles) to say.

As a result of my slight dislike, I had mentally cordoned off that corner of the yard as “not useable” for landscaping. Leave it to Joey to put a bug in my ear about “finishing the yard” as he motioned towards that corner, adding “do something with that.” Suddenly I realized that yeah, even though the tree makes a mess, it dapples sunlight throughout the day, which opens the possibility for some more shade-loving plants to be used… and in the front yard, where they can be shown off to the community, that’s also a bonus.

Some quick research and I came up with caladiums as an ideal solution. They need some companion foliage, and I’ve see them paired (happily in photos, at least) with begonias, and so off I went to some nurseries. (To replace the pygmy date palm in the back yard that had died with the freak freeze earlier this winter… I successfully replaced it, and am happy with the new plant!)

The new pygmy date palm and its predecessor

Trips to 3 places yielded some good finds on large healthy 6″ pots of a variety of colors in both begonias and caladiums, so I came home with about 15 caladiums of different colors and heights and about 20 begonias — all green leafed, but with pink, red and white blooms. Pretty!

The corner they were to go in had become the “dumping spot” for earth that got excavated as part of the front walkway replacement, so I had to rake it out a bit to loosen it up before digging that up again (for the 2nd time), and toss out the large rocks. I’ve learned, through the number of digging projects undertaken and completed in this yard, that dirt takes up more space than you might think, once it’s been freed from the ground itself. Funny how dirt outside a hole is “bigger” than dirt inside a hole!

The hole

So, Saturday the hole was dug, edgers placed to estimate how many were needed, and the bulk of the plants were purchased. Sunday, Joey had softball games, so Ivy and I went to get a few more plants to fill in and really make that corner “stuffed with color” 🙂 I even let her pick out a few caladiums. She was pretty happy to do that! Hopefully this will instill in her an appreciation for plants and a want to DO some of this as she gets older. It’s something I’d enjoy doing with her.

We brought the plants home, and I set her up with Nemo while I filled the hole with 4 cuft of soil, and planted everything. It took about 2 hours. Dirt out of the hole is bigger, and plants INTO the hole take longer than what might be expected. Needless to say, I’ve picked up an impressively pink burn this weekend (picked up a hat this morning, which helped with the 3pm work in the yard). Not very smart of me, but well… live and learn.

So, another successful project in the front yard has been completed!

The next last “big” thing to do is replace the scraggly St. Augustine that came with the house with some zoysia. There will be other things to do as well — my cold-weather plants are starting to look like the end of their season, so they (snapdragons, alyssum and pansies) will need to be replaced soon. But I think the grass is the next big one. It’ll be nice to have a lovely green “carpet” which contrasts against the earth-toned concrete edgers and walkway. Ahhh.

In the meantime, I’m savoring this accomplishment. It’s really helped give the front yard a more “complete” look 🙂

The finished corner