First, thank you for the incredible outpouring of kindness and support you showed our family yesterday. Your encouragement and shared stories mean so much to us. Now, let’s shift gears and take a long-overdue photo tour of our yard (inspired by Katie B’s style).
You’ve already seen a few glimpses in posts about our carport/driveway, our “alley,” and the magnolia out front, but there’s much more to share. This post is photo-heavy — I shot over 100 pictures a couple of weekends ago and took some time to edit and pare them down.
Let’s start with the front yard. It’s smaller than our previous home’s front yard, which I appreciate because it means less lawn to mow. Still, there are plenty of shrub borders, groundcover areas, and a large circle of bare soil under the magnolia, so there’s not an excessive amount of grass to deal with.
Our long-term plan is to improve the house’s curb appeal and thoughtfully rework much of the yard, but those projects will evolve over time — similar to how we gradually transformed our last home over several years. For the front specifically, we want the entrance and the porch to feel more open and welcoming.
Right now the front walkway feels narrow and constrained by hedge-like borders of boxwoods and azaleas. While those shrubs define the grassy area, they also interrupt sightlines and don’t lead the eye to the front door. Ranch-style houses, in our opinion, benefit from some open space and a layer of lower, more varied plantings rather than dense rows of tall shrubs that hide the house’s character.
Interestingly, most visitors and delivery people use the side door by the carport rather than the front entrance, which isn’t surprising given how narrow and uninviting the path reads. On move-in day, I had to trim bushes just to get furniture through, and that was in the snow. We’d like the path to at least look like a usable entrance someday, even if folks still prefer the carport.
To open up the entry, we’re planning to trim, remove, or transplant some of the larger shrubs in favor of lower-profile landscaping on either side of the path. That should make the route to the porch feel more inviting and showcase the porch’s potential, which we’ll also update in time.
One dominant theme around the property is the abundance of liriope (aka “monkey grass”). On the sloped side of the front yard there’s a deep swath of it — about ten plants deep above a stone wall and more below. That mass of liriope is low-maintenance and largely self-sustaining, though we’d like to introduce more color to break up the monotony.
Adjacent to that tilled slope is a large wild patch of tall grasses and weeds along a stone wall and brick path. It separates our house from the neighbor’s on the left and gives us some welcome breathing room. Our new lot is almost an acre and more square than our previous long, skinny lot. The shape means we have more side-yard space, but it also leaves visible wild areas that feel unfinished.
(I should sketch the yard layout in a future post — stay tuned.)
We’re considering naturalizing that wild patch so it reads as lush and semi-wooded, with tall grasses, wildflowers, and additional trees and shrubs to give it a more intentional, forested feel. There’s no rush — we’ll let it evolve.
The backyard still has a large, mostly un-landscaped expanse behind the house. Thanks to an addition, the back elevation feels charming with its peaked roof, and in time we may bring some of those architectural elements to the front and even paint siding and brick for a cohesive look. Those are big decisions that will take careful thought.
This open back area was once more heavily wooded and now acts as a repository for leaves. Instead of seeding it into a manicured lawn, we’re leaning into a wilder aesthetic to reduce maintenance. Our plan is to slowly add fast-growing evergreens to create privacy and recapture that wooded feeling we loved at our previous home.
Overall, the backyard charms us. It features brick pathways — an improvement over pea gravel paths we had before — although the small round planting beds beside those walks interrupt the lawn. We’re likely to remove several of those beds to create a more open play area for kids and dogs. Likewise, the deep liriope borders along the paths can make the walkways feel narrow; we may remove some and let turf grow to the brick edges for a cleaner transition.
There are more stone borders than we expected, and while they work in some places to separate landscaped areas from the wilder yard, they’re a nuisance when mowing. A few of the decorative beds will probably be transplanted or consolidated to simplify care.
Behind the carport, off the sunroom, is a small fenced area that our dog Burger loves — it’s fully visible from the house and has plenty of interesting sniffing spots. We’re planning a liriope removal party here too and hope to build a DIY stone patio to create more usable outdoor living space. For now, that small patio off the sunroom is the primary entertaining spot, though it’s not large enough for our grill.
The sunroom itself was once an outdoor space before it was enclosed, and the original brick stair remains. It’s a quirky leftover detail; we’ll decide on a tasteful way to address it without adding clutter.
We’re falling more in love with the yard each day as plants unfurl and color returns. One new favorite is a grafted maple with two different leaf colors — a tiny wonder that brightens a view from our guest room window. Our azaleas just started to bloom, and the yard is coming alive.
Now that you’ve seen these “before” pictures, we’re eager to begin some of the projects as the weather steadies. First though, we’ll give Sherry’s allergies time to calm down — the pollen’s been intense lately. Once that’s settled, we’ll start chipping away at liriope, rethinking borders, and gradually shaping the outdoor spaces into something more “us.”
Update: If this tour felt unclear, we posted an updated version with a sketch and video in this follow-up post.