Young House Love

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Digging Up A Dated Row Of Bushes

We did it! Over the course of two nice long Clara naps (and with a little help from a friend) we managed to open up our front yard in what we like to call “Phase Two Of Ten Million” when it comes to slowly transforming our front yard. Why so many phases? Well it started out looking like this:

Front Before

Much like our first house’s yard, we figure it’ll take a few years of tweaks to get it where we want it, so this phase was just about clearing things out for a you-can-actually-see-the-house-now effect (Phase One was limbing up the magnolia). In short: we dug up/transplanted/removed a ton of bushes (with the help of a friend of ours who took home some boxwoods in exchange for helping us get a bunch of them up). This post is full of photos, so I’ll let them do the talking. Without further ado, here are the before and afters (we tried to take photos from the same angle for comparison). First there’s the AFTER to the before above (don’t mind the black feather wreath out there on the door for Halloween):

Front After

Here’s another BEFORE for ya from the driveway:

From Driveway Before

And another AFTER from the same angle (a little further away):

From Driveway After

Another BEFORE:

Driveway Side Before

And the AFTER:

Driveway Side After

Here’s a side-angle BEFORE:

Side Driveway Before

And an AFTER from the same POV:

Side Driveway After

Another BEFORE facing more towards the street:

Corner Before

And the accompanying AFTER:

Corner After

Here’s a BEFORE from the other side (the bushes used to completely stop the eye so our yard felt way smaller):

Side View Before

And here’s the AFTER from the same angle:

Side View After

Yet another BEFORE:

Side Angle Before

And another AFTER:

Side Angle After

Here’s how it looked from the front porch BEFORE:

Looking Out Before

And AFTER:

Looking Out After

The only drawback? I got me a blister. So in that aspect it was exactly like Phase One (seen here). Totally worth it though. No pain, no gain.

Blister

As for where we put the bushes that we transplanted, we just dug them up…

Transplanted Bush

… and planted them in the naturalized parts of our side and back yard (and our friend who helped us dig made off with the rest of the healthy ones). Sadly some of the bushes were dead…

Dead Boxwood

Dead Bushes

… so those just got removed with a sawzall (aka this reciprocating saw by Skill). Which was probably more fun to use than it should have been (it was actually our first time sawzalling, so we took turns and grinned like fools the whole time). And you know we loved the fact that this big curb appeal makeover was f-r-e-e (well, I guess it cost us a few boxwoods in return for some helpful friend labor, but it was foliage well spent).

As for our future lawn plans, we’re definitely just getting started out there – so there are a lot more phases on the over-the-next-few-years agenda. We’ve got plans to:

  • dig out some ivy/monkey grass
  • lay down some grass seed in certain areas
  • layer in some low maintenance native (and less vinyl fence-like) plantings to soften things up around certain areas of the perimeter
  • landscape around the front of the house (there are hardly any plants on either side of the porch – so it’s just sort of a mud pit in those areas)
  • do a million other things that are slipping my mind at the moment (one big one: convert the carport to a garage)

So this step was just about clearing things out to make way for some less house-obscuring choices and opening things up to let the eye travel a bit further in certain places. Feels nice to let the house breathe a little. And the neighbors have all been saying such sweet things about the change. Whew! Has anyone else been up to a few exterior tweaks? Do you do them during baby naps with the monitor outside on full blast so you can run in at a moment’s notice? Do you hold your breath until the neighbors approve? We totally do.

Psst- We’re over on BabyCenter talking about a Halloween surprise that we discovered on Sunday night. Let’s just say Clara’s in love. Here’s the story.

Comments

  11. Dara says

    Oh my Gosh! What a Huge transformation! You guys are so impressive. Its amazing what a lil grooming and relocating of plants can do! Your yard does look so much bigger now. Although, you are no longer hidden from the world behind those bushes so your neighbors can actually see you. Which could be a good thing or a bad thing! Regardless, the yard looks amazing! Congrats. Now back to that kitchen! lol. j/k.

    Reply

  12. Elisa @ The Self Life says

    Wow, the difference is crazy!! Amazing how much bigger it makes your house look.

    Also, we’re planting 6 MORE trees in our backyard on Thursday **happy dance** — in addition to the 7 we’ve already planted. Be happy you were removing and not planting! Hah!

    Reply

  14. Maureen @This (Kinda Old House) says

    Wow! Looks fantastic! And I have that same wreath, by the way. :)

    We have the opposite problem of hardly any landscaping at all. Working on it, though. And I love that you replanted the bushes. I can’t tell you how upset I get when I see that people literally throw-out their healthy plants!

    Hope things are going well in kitchenland as well. :)

    Reply

  20. Regina says

    It does look much nicer, but I can understand why someone would want a bush fence – privacy. It does look incredible, though. Nice job! :)

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Since we do most of our evening living on the back side of the house (the kitchen, living room, and our bedroom are not on the front side of the house) no one can really peer in at night to see what we’re up to! If they could I think we’d rather close blinds in the evening than live behind a bush fence though!

      xo,
      s

  22. Katie D says

    Wow! What a difference! I bet people drive by now and say, “Oh! There is a house back there!” Can’t wait to see what else you do! Love your site!!

    Reply

  23. Christine says

    Capital! That is just an incredible improvement. I love it.

    This spring I transplanted about 71 liriope plants and they all made it and even bloomed this fall. I love that you all are transplanting too!

    Reply

  25. Gina @ Running to the Kitchen says

    Holy cow, that opened the yard up SO MUCH! It looks a million times better! I’ve always disliked when you can’t see a house at all from the street because of overgrown shrubs/trees. Your house is so pretty, it’s worth showing off :)

    Reply

  26. Karen L. says

    Great job! Sometimes people just can’t allow themselves to dig up trees or shrubs but they do get overgrown and bad looking. It’s great to make it look pretty. I had to convince my husband to remove really old, gigantic boxwood-like shrubs at one of our houses years ago as you couldn’t see out of our family room window! But it still took me three years to convince him to take them all out–ha! You’re so right—-we could breathe, plus have a view. :)

    Reply

  29. toni from says

    Wow! You guys move fast, the front yard looks amazing and almost unrecognizable. Congrats on a job well done. Also, i like the black feather boa wreath, I think it looks cool in the photos, especially the ones from a distance.

    Reply

  33. Gina says

    GREAT work! we’ve been doing something similar. Based on your lirope experience, we offered our boxwoods for free to anyone who would dig them up. Three cheers for free yard labor! Unfortunately, our yard still looks way more torn up than yours. :(

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Yeah, sometimes that can end in large holes! But if you add in some topsoil and toss down some grass seed it can get better! That’s how we did things at our last house and it ended up looking so good. Can’t beat free labor!

      xo,
      s

  35. Jeanna says

    Looks so good, really makes a world of difference for the better IMO!!!

    I was dying to know what the neighbors were saying so glad yall included that tidbit!

    Reply

  36. Julia @ Chris loves Julia says

    That’s incredible. Already looks 10x better. We are really wanting to do yard tweaks. The previous owners must have been gaga for roses because we have about 12 rose bushes around the perimeter of our front yard. It is just TOO much maintenance for us. Not to mention, I am more of a fan of shrubs and plants that look good year round. Unfortunately, our next door neighbor loves our roses and would probably cry if…..WHEN we rip them out. We are in such a pickle. Lose the roses or the neighbor???

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Oh man that’s so hard! What about transplanting them so the neighbor knows you didn’t kill them and you can appreciate them in a cluster in the backyard with some other plants that look good year round to “round things out”?

      xo,
      s

    • Reenie says

      Give the roses to the neighbor so they can plant them in their yard =)

      Sher & John ~ WOW what a difference. It looks great. I’d be out there staring at it from the street. :)

  37. Tara says

    Looking good!
    I am curious… did you install sod over the newly bare ground immediately? It doesn’t look like a dirt pit out there… how did you do it??
    -Tara

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Many of the bushes are surrounded by ground cover (ivy, monkey grass, other green vines) so we dug up the bushes and sort of pushed the ground cover over the hole for now (just to keep it from looking like a messy mud pit). We definitely plan on clearing out some of that ground cover and adding in some dirt to level things off before we toss down some grass seed though!

      xo,
      s

  39. liz @ bon temps beignet says

    WOW!!!!! It looks amazing. We have a wall of bushes/trees on the side of our house. I don’t mind it to much since it blocks out the noise from the college age boys who rent the house across from us. They’re the kind of young men who think pumpkin smashing parties at 5AM are fun. I’m making my 26 year old self sound like a grandma.

    Reply

  41. Traci says

    The new yard is totally working for me! And I love that you guys went green (pun intended) by re-purposing the bushes to other parts of your property! :)

    Reply

  46. Dani says

    Wow. Just wow. It looks amazing! Now I feel pretty unaccomplished having only painted the dining room this weekend. :)

    Reply

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