First off, the outpouring of kindness and support you showed our family yesterday was humbling and amazing. Thank you for the encouraging words and for sharing your stories. Now for something lighter: a long-overdue photo tour of our yard.
You’ve seen a few glimpses of what we’re working with in posts about the carport and driveway, the “alley,” and the magnolia out front, but there’s a lot more to show. Fair warning: this is a photo-heavy tour. I spent three weeks editing down the 100+ pictures I took a couple weekends ago to put this together.
Let’s start with the front yard.
The front yard is smaller than our last house’s — the house sits closer to the street — which I actually like because there’s less grass to mow. Bush borders, groundcover areas, and a big dirt circle under the magnolia already limit how much turf there is. We have long-term plans to improve curb appeal and update every square foot of yard (like we did at our last house), but specifics will evolve over time. It’ll be fun to see where we end up in a few years.
Our plan for the front is to make it feel more open and invite people toward the porch. Right now there are lots of borders of bushes — mostly boxwoods and azaleas — that act like a natural fence around the lawn. They create visual interruptions and obscure the front entrance, which makes the narrow path less welcoming. Short, squat ranch houses like ours benefit from more open space and lower, varied plantings rather than walls of large shrubs that make the house feel smaller.
Almost no one uses the front door — delivery drivers use the side door in the carport. The narrow path doesn’t read as “walk this way.” On move-in day I even had to trim bushes to get furniture through. Because the path connects naturally to the sweet pavers used for the driveway, we’d love to make it look and feel usable someday, even if people still prefer the carport.
To open up the entrance, we’re thinking of trimming back or removing some bushes in favor of lower-profile plantings. That should make the path feel wider and highlight the front porch, which we’d like to enhance over time.
One dominant feature across the property is liriope (aka “monkey grass”). The sloped area above the stone wall is a deep sea of it — about ten plants deep — which is both amusing and handy.
That patch of liriope is low-maintenance and welcome, though we’d like more color there eventually. Beside it, though, is a wild stretch of tall grasses and leaves next to the stone wall and brick path that’s part of our lot.
This space separates our house from the neighbor on the left (as you face the house), and we appreciate the breathing room. Our lot is surprisingly similar in size to our last one, but more square. The upside is more space between houses; the downside is visible “wild” areas that need a plan. We’d like to naturalize that stretch with tall grasses, wildflowers, and some larger trees and shrubs so it reads lush and semi-forested instead of bare and untended. No rush — we’ll take it slowly.
We also have a lot of un-landscaped space in the back. The addition on the house gives the back a different look than the front, including a charming peak we may echo on the front someday. Big changes like painting siding or brick will take time and careful thought so we don’t make hasty decisions we’ll regret.
Apparently this area used to be more heavily wooded but was cleared at some point, leaving a leaf-filled expanse. We’re moving away from the “grow grass everywhere” mindset and plan to keep part of the backyard wild to reduce maintenance. We’ll plant fast-growing evergreens over time to create privacy and restore that wooded feeling we love, while keeping other areas more managed.
Overall the backyard is charming. Unlike our old yard, the paths are brick instead of pea gravel (which was a weeding nightmare), though they could use a pass with the leaf blower. There are round planting beds flanking the path that we’ll likely remove to create more uninterrupted lawn for the dog and future kids to run around.
Even though liriope is less obstructive than the large boxwoods we had before, it’s often planted several rows deep and narrows the paths. We prefer more organic transitions, so we’ll probably remove a lot of the monkey grass and let lawn meet the brick edge for a cleaner look.
There are also many stone borders throughout the yard. They define spaces well in some spots, but they interrupt the flow in others and make mowing and edging a chore. We’ll keep some where it makes sense and remove or relocate others to simplify maintenance and open up the lawn.
All those stone edges are a pain when mowing, and I’m using the gas mower in the back because the push mower works best on long, straight stretches — which this yard doesn’t have.
One more spot to show is behind the carport, off the sunroom — a fenced area we jokingly call everything from “Liriope Heaven” to “Burger’s Bathroom.” It’s perfect for Burger: fenced, visible from the house, and full of interesting smells.
We’d like to remove more liriope here and DIY a stone patio to create more usable outdoor living space. Right now the only outdoor entertaining area is a small patio off the sunroom and living room that isn’t even big enough for our grill. The patio furniture was left by the previous owners, and Sherry’s broken ceramic dog still sits by the door.
The sunroom was once an outdoor space; you can still see the original brick staircase leading up to it. It’s a quirky leftover detail that we’ll figure out how to incorporate — perhaps with plants or another subtle solution.
We’re smitten with these outdoor spaces. None of them are perfectly “us” yet, but that’s part of the excitement — so much potential. As things bloom and green up, we love the changes each day brings. One favorite is a grafted maple with two different colored leaves that creates a beautiful view from a guest room window.
I should have waited longer to take these pictures — the azaleas started coloring up just yesterday — but rather than delay, Sherry snapped a few close-ups of blooms to add here. Nature is doing its thing and it’s lovely to watch.
Now that you’ve seen these “before” photos and the weather is consistently nicer, we can start tackling outdoor projects — once Sherry’s allergies settle down a bit. We’re excited to chip away at improvements, keep what works, and simplify where it’ll make life easier. Stay tuned for updates.
Update: An updated post with a sketch and video should help clarify some of the ideas and plans for the yard.