FoxxyLady01
Newly Registered
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Jun 21, 2011 12:12 pm
Location: Richmond

In Need of Suggestions for Front Lawn and Garden

Hello Everyone,

My name is Lauren - I am a student at VCU and I'm very much in love with my new house.

My only trepidation is my lawn, and small garden in the front of my house. I don't even know where to begin.

Here are some images you can see on Flickr of my problem:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/39326140@N02/5857254372/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/39326140@N02/5856700147/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/39326140@N02/5857252378/

Could you recommend what I could do to improve the grass I have? And recommend some flowers, and other items to plant in front of my house? I'd love to create something beautiful, but again I don't even know where to begin Sad

Thanks alot!

Lauren :flower:
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Everyone lady, is a rose.

I like plants
Senior Member
Posts: 133
Joined: Sun May 30, 2010 4:59 pm
Location: Canada

You could do overspread, but that is a little too late I think. You usually do that in May.

You could probably water more and give it some fertiliser that you can get at your local garden centre.

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rainbowgardener
Super Green Thumb
Posts: 25279
Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:04 pm
Location: TN/GA 7b

Trim the shrub which is looking weedy and over grown. Keep the lawn well mowed and edged along walk to the house. You'd be amazed how much difference it makes just to keep it really neatened up! I would take out all the grass in front of the fence, which is a pain to mow anyway and put a flower strip there, something that will fill in nicely. Put some flower beds in front of the house (much wider than what is there now).

What direction does your house face and how sunny or shady are those areas? We can make better plant suggestions when we know the sun exposure.

One possibility for the strip in front of the fence would be daylilies. They come in all kinds of wonderful colors/ color combinations:

https://erthturf.com/AllAboutDaylilies.html

They spread and fill in very quickly and are super hardy, easy care, low maintenance. The down side is if you plant the whole strip in day lilies, they just bloom for a few weeks of the year. After that you just have a big green clump of foliage, like this (scroll down near the bottom to the foliage picture)

https://greenman857.wordpress.com/


You could mitigate this somewhat by how you choose your varieties. Look for early season daylilies and late season daylilies and you will extend the bloom time considerably.

tay666
Full Member
Posts: 26
Joined: Thu Jun 09, 2011 8:49 pm
Location: North East Ohio

My advice.
Keep the grass mowed. That will help. It may even start to fill in better on it's own.
I agree about ripping the grass out in front of that fence.
For now, I would suggest putting in some annuals. Marigolds if you can still find some locally.
The will give you a nice splash of color to last the rest of this summer. And fill in that area. Also, it will distract the eye from the lawn itself.

That will give you time to plan out what you really want to do.

I've made the mistake before of just throwing stuff out there that I thought would look good. Then changing my mind of what I want to do, and have to re-do it all. So, I think you would be better off taking your time and going over your options.
Pick out 2-4 plants that you know you just have to have. Then come up with a design that will work for them. You know, bed size and shape, etc.
You can spend the rest of this summer designing, and prepping the beds.
And depending on the plants, get them in this fall, or next spring.

As to the lawn. I'm no expert.
Me, I would just mow it, maybe rake it out a bit. And throw some seed in the bare patches and see what happens.
But what do I know. I think over half my 'lawn' is weeds and clover. But it's green. And as long as it's mowed and kept neat, no one really notices.

Love my garden
Newly Registered
Posts: 8
Joined: Thu Jul 21, 2011 12:22 pm
Location: So Cal - USDA Zone 10B, Sunset Zone 22

Everyone has great suggestions. Mowing the lawn you have will keep it neat as you decide what you want. If you are not water restricted, you can water regularly to see if what's there fills in more.

I am new to this also. One thing I do is look at other gardens and home around town to see what I like about them and what I don't like. Also gardening magazines may help with names and types of plants and how they look in place. You will also need to think about how much work you want to do in the garden. I like being out there more than I thought.

My changes are in the back of my house, so I let the grass die, trimmed/prunned all plants, bushes, vines etc. This gave me an idea of the area I was dealing with. I am starting from scratch (and with a small budget) but the area by area approach is fun ( and mistakes can be changed easily)

I feed the soil with soybean meal and coffee grounds. I redid the lawn and I have added compost and amendments to some of the areas I am not planting at the moment.

Have fun



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