What have we done? Part 1

We've been in our house for almost a year now, and we have already done some work in the yard. The "What have we done?" series will serve to catch the diary up on year 1 activity.

Part 1: the front yard.

We haven't done much in the front, partly because it's fairly small, and partly because we're mostly happy with it (with one exception, see below). When we moved in, there were a bunch of pansies planted along the right side of the house; I tore all of those out when they died (annuals!), and that planting area is still bare. I tried growing marigolds and sweet alyssum around our triple-apple. Despite the fact that these are two of the easiest plants to grow, mine managed to die almost immediately. Not a great day for my green thumb...

Anyway, on the left side of the driveway there's another planting area that's dominated by a small-ish tree that we don't really like. It's in our long-term plan to cut it down and put up something else, maybe an evergreen? Around the base of the tree, I planted two pairs of perennial groundcover plants (ID needed).

The front yard is mostly on the left side of the house, and this was nicely landscaped already when we moved in with well-established flowering shrubs. I haven't made any changes to this area.

On the left side of the house, we have a stone front patio (maybe 15'x15') behind an iron gate and fence. There's a wooden fence along the property line, bordered by a planting "gutter" that is on the sprinkler system. This area just had a couple of rose suckers sneaking in from our neighbor's yard when we moved in. We recently planted a double-delight rose bush here, which smells really good. We want to get a Mr. Lincoln as well.

We also recently put small orange and mandarin trees in a pair of large pots on the front patio; this is part of our idea to "green up" this fairly sterile front entrance area (and to block view of our ugly AC unit on the side of the house :). And of course, we are looking forward to the harvest! The trees are already covered with small green proto-oranges!

Next up: the back yard, where we have been more active.