A 4 Year Labor of Love Ugly Duckling Turned Into a Beautiful Swan

by TB

This is what my fixer upper house looked like when I bought it. The outside was completely overgrown and never taken care of. The yard was nonexistent---no grass. It was all moss because there was so much shade. It had great bones though, and I had a vision.

beautiful upper house landscape, curb appeal, gardening, landscape, outdoor living

Here's what the front of the house looks like 4 years later after I removed a ton of trees, added some huge landscaping beds and worked with some of the existing plantings. The only tree in the front yard that I kept was the white birch. It was in the perfect location and is a very showy tree to be a front yard specimen. The huge norway spruce was planted directly overtop of my septic tank, so that had to go. The rest of the trees were way too close together, and many of them were structurally unsound due to growing crooked looking for sunlight. The birch is slightly crooked due to its search for light, but I was willing to overlook that because it adds to the charm.....and it's not going to hit anything important if it does fall over.

Another view before and after. The rhododedron and cedars along the front of the house were here. The entire huge bed to the right I added. There's a purple fountain weeping beech. A few thread leaf cypress. Two weeping cedars. A blue spruce. Several ornamental grasses and perennials. I'm a horticulturist so plants are my passion. I spread the love around with a lot of different varieties and species.

One of the huge beds in the front yard

Here's the back of the house. Gazebo is gorgeous but there was no landscaping and no yard. I have three English setters so I can't do too much with the landscaping in the backyard....everything needs to be "setter safe" or fenced off so the plants don't get wrecked lol. I ripped down the rotting shed by myself with a sawzall----what a miserable job!

I added a small pond (fenced because the setters wouldn't stay out haha) and some pretty and dog safe landscaping. River rocks to control the mud at the base of the deck which is the only entrance to their doggie yard. The privacy fence now has a 100 foot long shade bed in front of it which includes plants such as a tricolor beech, Olga mezzitt rhododendron, tons of different hostas and heuchera, pachysandra, calsap rhododendron, and several japanese maple varieties.

Another view of the backyard. As you can see there was no grass and it was all woods. I cleared the brush all myself and dropped and cut up several trees myself---enlisting help to get the bigger ones onto the ground. I installed the fence the day after settlement because it's all about the setters :). They have almost an acre fenced yard now which they love. The backyard is now grass instead of moss which is wonderful!

And my veggie garden is inside the fence with the red gate.

Moral of the story is to never underestimate a diamond in the rough. Don't be afraid of a little hard work. You can tackle any project you set your mind to! I did 95% of this work myself. Anyone can do it if you have the willpower! Here's a few other photos of some of my other beds that I didn't include before shots of---they were equally as terrible as the rest :) (Well for some reason only one of them will upload..there's several more but apparently Hometalk doesn't like the photos LOL!)