These photos will give y'all a better idea of what I'm dealing with and trying to accomplish.
The arbor swing (which I will be painting soon). You can see how close the neighbor's carport is to my house and the side street beyond her yard. This will be screened off.
The side yard looking from the swing to the front of the house:
BTW, about midway of the front yard on this side will be a bed containing a laburnum alpinum, with alliums and other perennials and shrubs underneath. The laburnum is
currently being nurtured in a pot for planting out.
The side yard looking from front to rear:
On the front corner here I will be planting one of those arborvitae Emeralds to screen the a/c units from the street, along with hydrangea(s) and perennials. All of the area from
the first a/c unit backward has been planted and mulched already. There were many, many overgrown shrubs along this side of the house when we bought it last year and
they have been removed. A huge improvement, IMHO.
The back of the swing, where I really, really want good screening:
The front of the house where the 4 Emerald arborvitae will be planted, perhaps as soon as next week:
One on either side of the bow window and one at each corner.
I spent all of last summer and fall removing all the overgrown shrubbery from around the house, planted a few tulip bulbs in the fall and started generally cleaning up the yard.
This was the nightmare I had to deal with the back yard: I finally had it completely removed and leveled off, grass seed sown. My g-granddaughter (age 8) and I moved every on
of those wall blocks by hand and riding mower to the front yard where they were placed in a circle around the 2 dogwood trees there. Many good plants lived in this back yard
circle and I would love to have saved it, but it had been neglected for so long and the weeds had moved in with a vengeance. It would have taken me several years of hard work
to reclaim it. I saved as many of the plants as I could, gave some to my neighbor and called in the Bobcat! My plantings will be confined to the perimeter of the yard.
Enough for now. If I were only 10 years younger!
