The Ugly Side

I hope you had a wonderful holiday weekend! We did equal parts laying on the couch and playing/working -- so it was a successful one for us. :) 

I got a TON done outside. I think I said I was done with outside projects for awhile? I was mistaken. I planted about 20 plants -- some where purchases from weeks ago that really needed to get in the ground, some were plants I replanted. And then I finally got the garden in the ground which was another 15 or so. It was a dirty weekend. :) 

I'm so thrilled to have that done though! I wanted to get it all done before the heat of the summer hits, and was congratulating myself out loud to my husband when he mentioned the "other" side of the house. 

Hmmmm. He knows we don't talk about that side. The bad side. The side I choose to ignore and I have no idea why. I showed you the GOOD side a couple weeks ago after I installed the landscape lighting (and shared a tutorial): 

I added a few more plants over there this weekend and it looks even prettier now. :) I still have projects to do, but overall I'm really pleased with it when we drive up:  

And the husband loves it so much, he's wondering when we I can move on to the other side. The lawn is his baby -- the plants are mine. Totally convenient right about now. 

This is the area with the plants I loathe, where I pile up trash that needs to be hauled away and where I generally tend to ignore things. I'm blowing this one up real big for ya to see all the goodness: 

It may not look too awful at first glance, but let me show you around. 

First of all. I HATE the plants over here. Well, most of them anyway. I have a rose bush that's been in the ground for about ten years and has produced all of about ten blooms. I've never understood why because it gets great sun. 

Soon after we built the house I planted these spirea plants and they SUCK. I'm not going to hide my feelings: 

:) I really do hate these plants -- no matter what I do to them they look half dead. I picked them out because they are cheap and fast growing, and they do get huge quick. But they look like butt and I can't wait to tear them out. (This is the nicest one of the three by far.) If anyone has had success with these, let me know your tips and I'll try them! 

Let's move on to my favorite part -- the trash pile. Keeping it classy! This a metal pergola we had over a section of the deck for a long time. I took ripped up fabric part off last fall and on a nice day back in March I took the rest of the structure down and left it over here: 

Yes it's been two months now. I have held off on getting it hauled away because I thought we might have more stuff, but we're calling to get it taken care of this week. Until then…classy. 

My watering station leaves a little to be desired: 

For two years I've been planning to build another DIY hose holder, I just haven't gotten to it quite yet. I think maybe this will be the year? My neighbors can hope. 

We had a hail storm that destroyed the siding on this side of the house years back and last year we had the siding fixed -- it looks a million times better. We keep forgetting about the screens on these two windows though: 

The gashes are pretty, yes? 

Overall the solution for the ugly side is basically clean up and plants -- not too bad. I've had bigger plans for this side of the house for some time now, but more on that in a minute. 

Since this side gets the hot afternoon sun, I need to be careful with what I plant over here. No hydrangeas. :( Wahhwah. 

But I can add another one of my favorites, the knock out roses: 

These are so easy to grow and add color from May till fall. My plan is to add a line of them up against the house, mixed in with some evergreen bushes for year round color and some burning bushes -- they do great in full sun and are just stunning in the fall! 

I started a trend in the back that I want to keep going everywhere else -- I love the mix of purple and red flowers and I think it looks great up against our house. I'll add some of this salvia as well to go with the knock out roses: 

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I think it will be just beautiful. Since we live in a suburb and there are houses right next to us, I'd like to add a tree outside one of the windows as well. (We've used some "lighter ones" like river birch in the back that aren't too obtrusive but still give some shade and privacy.)

My dream plan for years has been to add a section of fence on both sides of the house, but it would not extend all the way back. It sounds a little odd, but we really don't need the back fenced with the trees we have back there. The little section on the sides would make it easier to let our little dog roam and would add a ton of interest to the sides of the house. 

I've dreamed of something like this:

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Doesn't that feel like a secret garden? Love it. 

I would love a gate with a curved top like this: 

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But one like this would work too -- I'm not picky!: 

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Wouldn't that be lovely? 

Of course in my dreams it would be covered in clematis and be crazy gorgeous like this: 

 

It gets me giddy thinking of all the possibilities around a fence!

I love the addition of a paver detail under this one too: 

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Um. Do you SEE those hydrangeas? 

My husband will regret reminding me of this side of this side of the house. :) Buwhahahaha. 

The fence would only go from the side of the house back to the trees we have in the side yard, on both sides. I think for budgeting reasons we may have to do one side of the house at a time though.  

I'm guessing maybe a third of this will happen this year. I'm just aiming to fix the window screens and getting the junk hauled away for right now. Baby steps. But I can see it looking just fantastic some day, right? 

Any recommendations on plants for afternoon sun? We don't have a lot of spaces that have it so this is fairly new to me. Have you done anything fun to your side yard? It's a forgotten space for so many -- but as you can see the potential is huge!