No? Me neither. But it’s coming—slowly, but surely. After we finished the area to the right of the porch (see that project), the next items on the to-do list were:
- the area to the left of the porch
- the side lot beside our house (a low, damp valley we want to naturalize into a pretty little woods)
Before we dove into the planting bed next to the porch, we wanted to show you the current state of the side lot:
Okay, not exactly gorgeous. More like one of those things that makes you lower your head when neighbors walk by. Those are old clumps of ornamental grasses we were supposed to cut back each March (more on that here), so they’d put on fresh growth. Early April feels like the new March, right? We were a little behind schedule.
But we finally tackled them, and now the wild side lot looks a lot cleaner:
From the street, we can see the potential: this slope is perfect for naturalizing into a charming orchard of trees, groundcovers, and grasses—something that reads as woodsy and low-maintenance rather than a place we have to mow and rake constantly. You can spot the trimmed grass clumps (I’ve marked their locations with arrows in my head), and when they sprout back up—these can reach 4–5 feet tall—they’ll help create that foresty feel. See the new tree I circled on the left? That’s our first addition.
Planting trees is the first step toward transforming this moist valley into a lush, naturalized area. The certified landscape designer we consulted (more about that here) recommended several species suited to these conditions, including River Birch. When we found a River Birch on sale at Home Depot for $19, we bought it—plus used a $5 coupon from their gardening club (it’s free to join and you sometimes get coupons).
We followed the planting instructions on the tag and hoped this tree would be the beginning of a softer, more natural slope where weeds and debris currently rule. (Not to worry, we didn’t find any snakes this time—though we have met one sizable slithery neighbor in the past: read that story.)
Now, let’s shift over to the planting bed to the left of the front porch. It wasn’t looking great—covered in leaves, missing a couple of shrubs, and filled with that persistent liriope:
We raked out all the leaves…
dug out the liriope…
and planted an Otto Luyken laurel, which we mentioned previously (more here).
One of the middle bushes wasn’t thriving, according to the certified landscape expert, so we dug it up and transplanted it to the wilder part of the side yard where it can be less prominent and hopefully do better. Here’s John looking a bit worn out from the work:
After that, the bed felt open and ready for new plantings:
From the other angle you can see the size of the bed. It’s larger than the bed on the right side of the porch—about 20 feet long and 7 to 11 feet deep at various points.
To keep things balanced and because we knew what worked in partial shade, we repeated some plants we used on the opposite side. We added purple-flowering Garden Variegated Dead Nettle (the mounding variety, which stays around 6–8″ wide and tall, so it won’t overtake the bed) and three Dwarf Pieris Japonica Variegata shrubs (they grow roughly 2×2 feet). The Pieris produces small white flowers in spring and stays leafy the rest of the year—perfect for partial shade. We’d used these plants successfully at our first house, so we felt confident they’d do well here too.
Why three of each? Landscapers often recommend odd numbers and small clusters so the plants make a stronger visual impact. We spaced each plant according to the tags and positioned them to look balanced when they reach maturity, then dug holes and planted using the soil and fertilizer recommendations on the labels.
After a few hours of work, the bed started to look promising:
Photos don’t always show scale clearly, but we left 3–4 feet between plants and the house. That gives them enough room to fill in without becoming a crowded mess a few years down the line.
They may look small now, but we’re really fond of these shrubs. We’ve learned our lesson about settling for cheap, temporary plants: it’s better to invest in things we love and place them thoughtfully so they thrive and look good for years.
From left to right in the photo above: Otto Luyken laurel, Garden Variegated Dead Nettle, and Dwarf Pieris Japonica Variegata. We’re excited that these plants will bloom in spring and, in the nettle’s case, continue into summer. There’s more of the larger bed to finish beyond this section, but we gave our arms a break and topped the new plantings with mulch to retain moisture and suppress weeds. The planted area looks finished for now—beyond the mulch the bed returns to bare ground, and we’ll fill that in later.
Here’s a reminder of what the area looked like before—about six hours of raking, clearing, planning, digging, and mulching later:
And here’s most of the area after we finished this stage (we’ll complete the smaller zone on the far left once we decide on plants and our arms have recovered):
For fun, we mocked up a photoshop vision of how everything should look when the plants reach full size. It gives a sense of scale and how the composition will read once established:
We like that the plan keeps the plantings proportional to our one-story house—big shrubs and trees close to windows can overwhelm a ranch and make it feel squat. We’ve crossed a few tasks off our long list (see the list), but there are plenty more projects before the curb appeal is where we want it. I’d share a wide curb photo, but other ongoing projects around the path and mailbox are mid-progress and would make the view look worse before it looks better—so stay tuned for more updates in a future Petersiks Vs. Wild post.
In the meantime, what are you planting this season? Do you have a bunch of outdoor projects in progress that feel scattered? It helps to remember we’re inching toward something that will make a big difference from the curb—just a few more zones to tackle before everything comes together.
Psst—We’ve become a Hunger Games household. More on that over on Young House Life.