A few weeks ago we posted on Instagram about finally landscaping the front yard of our Cape Charles beach house. Here’s a more detailed account of how we completed the job in a single morning, what we planted, and how everything is looking nearly two months later. We also like having these photos and notes on the blog to check back on as the plants grow in. The beach house gets a lot of sun, and so far the plants are responding well.
Landscaping and gardening aren’t exactly our strongest skills (which is why we sometimes call in pros for our backyard at home), but we knew even a basic plan would dramatically improve the house’s curb appeal. For context, this was the front yard when we bought the property:
As recently as winter it still looked pretty unhappy. The house itself had seen big improvements, but the yard lagged behind. That messy pile of vines in the foreground of the photo was the result of our contractor removing a rusted shed and clearing rampant poison ivy from the backyard. The cleanup made a noticeable difference—if a little dramatic.
In April we learned that Virginia’s Historic Garden Week would bring extra foot traffic through Cape Charles. While our house wasn’t on the tour, a nearby corner property was, so we decided to use that weekend as a deadline to tidy up the front yard. The space is small, which made it realistic to finish in one morning.
Not sure if the local nursery would be open after winter, we picked up a few plants at Home Depot before our 2.5-hour drive to the Eastern Shore. Our plant-buying approach is simple:
- Choose a range of colors, even if that means different shades of green.
- Mix heights for layered, natural growth.
- Check labels to ensure the plants suit the site (full sun, partial sun, etc.).
- Prefer perennials over annuals so plants come back each year.
- Favor non-deciduous plants when possible to avoid a winter bed full of bare sticks.
With that plan, we chose the following:
- 3 sunshine ligustrum bushes (bright green-yellow, evergreen).
- 3 gardenia bushes (darker foliage, white blooms, evergreen).
- 3 purple creeping phlox (colorful groundcover perennials).
- 2 large porch ferns (annuals we plan to replace each spring).
Buying the phlox felt especially satisfying because deer in our Richmond yard often eat flowering plants. Cape Charles doesn’t seem to have that problem, and a neighbor’s creeping phlox bed convinced us purple would look great against the pink house.
We loaded the plants and headed out the next day.
We didn’t document the planting step-by-step—when a deadline and travel are involved we tend to forget photos—but the process was straightforward. I used a shovel to carve swooping beds that Sherry and I had sketched in the dirt along each side of the porch. The local nursery was open, so we grabbed a few extra plants:
- 2 taller camellia bushes to anchor each side of the house (evergreen and flowering).
- 2 additional creeping phlox for the sidewalk ends.
- Several bags of mulch to finish the beds.
After finishing up, we noticed the thin mulch connectors between the main beds and the front corners weren’t ideal, but we didn’t have time to perfect them that trip. We were also unsure how well the phlox would fare without a dedicated irrigation plan—our only hope was rainfall while we were away—so our expectations were cautious.
Almost two months later, the yard is doing better than expected. Most plants have survived and several have thrived. The mulch has weathered to a more muted tone, and the narrow strips along the sidewalk look less objectionable now.
The ligustrum and gardenias have grown noticeably, and the gardenias have bloomed more than once after we followed Instagram advice to deadhead spent flowers. The phlox’s initial blooms faded, so we clipped them to encourage fresh growth.
One of my favorite surprises is a resilient mystery shrub on the left side of the house that’s regrown vigorously. It was huge when we bought the house but was cut back during the renovation and later chopped to a stump during a utility search. It’s bouncing back quickly and should provide a nice privacy anchor once it fills in. We’ll keep it pruned to avoid it getting too tall, but having a free, hardy shrub return from a stump is encouraging.
There’s still more to do, especially around the sides and back, but that work is on hold until we get a shed and patio in place—both of which depend on progress with the duplex project—so the timeline is uncertain. For now, the front yard looks much less bare. Our neighbor’s hydrangeas are also blooming big and colorful, and Sherry is campaigning to add some hydrangeas to our beds as well. We’ll report back if she wins that argument.
If you want more landscaping and curb appeal ideas, explore our Exterior Upgrades category for related projects, including how to carve mulch beds, add landscape lighting, refresh outdoor furniture with a pressure washer, or install a simple irrigation system.