Front Yard Makeover with the Southern Living Plant Collection
My mom is the most incredible gardener. If you all were to see my parent’s backyard, you’d see roses and grapevines and fresh herbs. You’d see plants being carefully nurtured in greenhouses my parents created together and pots of hydrangeas blooming next to a sidewalk perfectly lined and mulched sprouting elephant ears. Apparently gardening is NOT a hereditary trait.
In my heart, I am a gardener. In my mind I nurture plants and flowers then cut them with special sheers and have fresh flowers that I have grown all over my house. In my dreams, gardening is really easy and fun and I look forward to sticking my ungloved hands into the completely bug-less dirt.
The truth is, I am not a good gardener (YET). Plants require foresight and planning and energy and you have to dig dirt and see red spiders and worms and ants and SNAKES. For the past year-ish we allowed ourselves to let the garden slip since it was literally impossible for us to work full time, and remodel a house, and keep a garden alive. But after attending the Home Depot Garden Party, and very honestly sharing my struggles with my new friend Carmen from the Southern Living Plant Collection, I felt a glimmer of hope. Carmen was so sweet and encouraging and promised that we really COULD have a garden that was beautiful. Even though there was nothing but weeds and dead dreams in front of our house—see? 😉
Carmen and her team were kind enough to give me the kick-start we needed by gifting us with four of the most beautiful plants I’ve ever seen. Even though I was sick with the Great Sinus-Allergy Plague of 2014, I managed to peel myself off the couch and watch Scott open the boxes. The way they were packaged was so cool—the plants sprang out and were so green and beautiful—as cheesy as it is, they really cheered me up. 🙂
After looking at some photos of our yard, Carmen had determined the plants that would do best in our mostly-shaded front area were the Big Daddy Hydrangeas and Jubilation Gardenias. After waiting a few days to let our immune systems fix us up a bit, we headed to Home Depot to get everything we needed to make our yard dreams a reality. We really didn’t even know what we needed, but luckily the garden associates were super friendly and helpful and told us exactly what would work in the North Texas shade. Since most houses in the area have little to no shade, our selection was limited but we made the best of it! We ended up picking a couple more hydrangeas, some hostas, lilyturf, soil and mulch.
We went home and laid out the pots until we found an order we liked. Then it was time for the really hard work—clearing the beds by raking out leaves, pulling weeds and ripping up random roots. This took us HOURS. We made many earthworm friends among the way…we even saw a SNAKE. It wasn’t very big but it was still super creepy and escaped into the dirt much faster than we could catch him!
After we raked and bagged the leaves (both of us continually sneezing into the bags), it was finally time to plant! The instructions on the Southern Living plants were super easy to follow and the actual planting of everything was fairly quick. After we had the plants all nice and snug in their new homes we called it a night.
The next afternoon we came back and mulched everything. Ya’ll. I LOVE how the mulch added that finished look. Of course we watered it all afterwards.
We are both so proud of our garden! The gardenias smell incredible and I can’t wait to see the Big Daddy hydrangeas bloom! Both will get wider and taller, so we are both anticipating our garden to fill out soon. 🙂 Doesn’t it all look lovely? If I can plant this—anyone can. 🙂
Last night we sat proudly on our porch, sipping on drinks and daydreaming and planning. We don’t feel like we have to hide from our neighbors anymore, or explain why our yard looks so crazy. 🙂 Of course our gardening has spawned the “domino decorating effect”. Now that our garden looks so beautiful, we are planning some pretty major overhauls for the front of our house…as always I can’t wait to share what we are doing! 🙂
Disclosure: I was gifted with the plants from Southern Living Plant Collection. This post contains my experience and opinions, both of which are completely my own. I truly love their plants so please check out all they have to offer!
Tania Griffis is an accomplished writer, blogger, and interior designer with a Journalism degree from the University of Oklahoma. She started her popular blog, Run to Radiance, in 2011, demonstrating her design expertise through the personal remodeling of six houses to millions of readers across the globe.
Tania also owns The Creative Wheelhouse, a respected ghostwriting agency for bloggers, further showcasing her talent for creating engaging and informative content.
You do have a beautiful front porch with many potentials. I can see a swing bench and a table with beautiful walls of flowers surrounding this porch very soon. Well done you two.
Thank you so much! I like that imagery…I love swing benches!
What a lovely post, Tania! I, too, struggle with keeping my plants alive (cactus even!). But seeing this post is so inspiring and gives me hope, that I too, can grow a garden!
It’s amazing how both of our parents are great gardeners and it comes so easy to them. I am convinced they just have more wisdom and patience (like all parents!). And we are on the right track!
I was not familiar with Southern Living, but will definitely keep it in mind when I get a chance to have a garden of my own :).
Also, wanted to add that the plants look amazing! I love the mulch + green combination, makes it look classy. 🙂 I can’t wait to see how big they grow! And they do add so much more liveliness to your home – which you already have inside, but now can be seen from the outside.
I appreciate your sweet words so much! I’m also relieved I’m not the only cactus-killer out there. 🙂 If I can grow a garden…you can!! And yes—for sure keep them in mind, the plants are incredible! 🙂
Beautiful transformation 🙂 Some people make excuses about not being able to grow plants because of a lack of sun light but you proved them wrong!
Thanks Dave! You are right…it’s an added challenge, but maybe these plants will be less high-maintenance? Now we just have to make sure our trees never fall down. Hehe.
Now I want to plant a hydrangea bush…. 🙂 We have a lot of shade, too. Your yard is looking sharp! It’s going to be amazing when everything blooms and fills out!
Your garden looks amazing! I love all the different varieties you planted and can’t wait to see what you do next. I am not a good gardener (I have lots of dreams but then reality sets in). Perhaps I will learn a little from your blog and manage to keep some the plants and shrubs alive at our new place.
Looks fabulous! You give me hope that I too can be a gardener one day. First I have to figure out how to stop the weed forest…
What a project! Your garden looks beautiful! I am with the Southern Living Plant Collection… please let me know if you have any questions about our new introductions… I think you will be real happy with our plants! Take care and thank you for the mention!!
i love how much heart you put into making your house a home, and it’s wonderful to read about how the same thing is happening to your garden – it looks gorgeous 🙂
Oh gosh. I love plants so much. I want to plant a whole garden and have rose bushes and flowers all over the place. Unfortunately, I live on the second floor of an apartment building. However, we do have a little balcony planter, which will do fine for now. 🙂 Great post!
Liz
Liz Makes
So pretty!
Your style is unique compared to other people I have read stuff from.
I appreciate you for posting when you’ve got the opportunity, Guess I’ll just
book mark this page.