curb appeal

Matt and I stopped by a nursery by our house last weekend to search through their stock of trees and shrubs.  We talked about doing some landscaping this Winter and then the mixture of a super-mild Winter and the beautiful March we had really sparked our interest in doing some landscaping.  Our current landscaping setup is plain and boring. We are the only house in the neighborhood without a big mature tree in the front.  I really think it will jazz up the "curb appeal" and really just make me more excited about our house if we add a little green out there.

The guy at the nursery was so helpful and knowledgeable. We ended up spending at least 2 hours there (it was supposed to be a motorcycle ride up there, look real quick, and leave) and got a really good idea of what we wanted.  After talking with Toby (guy at the nursery), we decided we needed to do the "big" things first.  We knew we couldn't do everything we had planned on this year, some will have to wait until next year.  He encouraged us to pick out our largest items and get those planted this year so they'd have the most time to grow and mature. Great idea Toby!

We have narrowed it down pretty close to what our 2012 plan will be...

1. Medium/Large sized tree for the front of the house off to the side a little (hopefully will add some pizzazz, color, and shade to the front)

      -Brandywine Maple-nice green leaves throughout the Spring/Summer, bright red leaves in fall, perfect size, moderate-fast growing

2. Shrubs for in front of our walkway 

      -Boxwoods (cute little green shrubs that will spruce up our front yard...I'll eventually plant some colorful flowers near them to add some color)

3. Small/Medium sized tree to go to the left of the front door entrance

      -Evergreen (I am not a fan of evergreens, but I have started considering it more because of how easy and low-maintainence they are)

      -Buckthorn (I just remember this name, I actually forget what it actually looks like)

      -Althea (Pretty flowers. Downside? We might have to trim this guy down every year)

4. MAYBE a nice little Redbud tree on the right side front of the house.  I love redbuds, but it may not be in the budget for this year.

That's all for this year.  We eventually want to add some Spring bulbs, Fall mums, hydrangea bushes, pavers and mulching. I also want to do a little island with some perennials (hopefully some zinnias!) in the front side yard. We need to spruce up around our mailbox too, but that may wait until next year.  

The plan is to get everything delivered next weekend so we can get to work! Wish us luck :)