Before House:

This is shortly after we moved in. I had removed a green "mustashe" across the front of the house, some weeds and some too large trees that were damaging the facia board and roof tiles. I forgot to take a true "before" picture. A great deal of the houses in this area have that same set up. You can also see where I'm starting to clear out the hell strip.For fun, I pruned a wild sunflower into a "tree". I'm still fighting for balance in the hellstrip now.
I also put in temporary annual vines to see if I liked the look. Vines "age" new houses and make them look more substantial.
After House:

I put in more beds My front yard trees are short. I will be filling the tree bed with plants this next year. One tree is a slow growing maple (caddo) the other a purple crepe myrtle. The CM matches my door. The maple only gets 30-40 ft tall and is conical instead of spreading. I didn't want a huge tree to eventually shade out the flowers by the door. I didn't want a large tree to dominate the smaller house/yard either. My Oaks,cypress and elms are in the back yard on the north west side for shade.There is a walkway of preformed brick like stepping stones leading up to the door. The native frog's fruit is the ground cover between them. I park my cars in the garage so people can park on my driveway instead of the street. The path gives passengers a place to step out on. The path also helps draw the eye to the front door.
The door alcove(?) is green and the front door is purple! The tone of the door combined with the glare off the storm door hides the purple color until you are very close. It's kind of a surprise :).

Purple Front Door:

Purple!

Before Patio:

No beds or much else around the patio but it does have a nice pergola. I will be painting the porch walls green this spring/summer. Despite the gorgeous pergola this was very bland and uninviting. There is a half dead chilian mesquite next to it. It looked slightly haunted until the bed filled out.

After Patio:

It has a large bed, a small patio fountain/*sigh* dog waterer, 2 huge climbing roses and lots of container plants now.

Future Painted Grey House:

My home colors for next spring as photoshopped by my dear DH to test trim and garage door colors. I also liked the idea of trellis flanking the doors so he copied the real trellis to the right and moved it to the left. There is a matching trellis now, but I'm actually doing a CM espaliar on that side not a matching vine. There is also going to be bricks at the end of our step on the walkway. I was so surprised that of all the colors I liked, gray was the best fit for the garage door and the trim! I wanted the visual focus to be on the front door not a giant white garage. In fact, every thing I've done so far is to draw the eye away from the huge,ugly garage door. Paint is so awesome. It's easy to change and doesn't break the bank.

Carla near Austin

One of the fastest, easiest, and cheapest ways to improve the hell strip is to add a few ornamental grasses. Try some fine textured grasses like adagio and mexican feather. They are often on sale at the Lowe's near me. Don't plant pampas grass, it gets too large and difficult to deal with.

We love to follow progess pics here, so look forward to more.

Rock Oak, I don't think Pampas grass would fit in my hell strip. Feather grass and red yucca look to be my only hope. They don't call it the hell strip for nothing. It looked truly hideous after the month of 100's in August 2010. If it weren't for the lantana, hyacinth bean on the mailbox and the kidneywood trees, it would've looked like a tiny vacant lot of weeds.

roselee, that is good old fashioned hyacinth bean. I plant it to clean(a decontamination plant),fertilize and give me an idea how a vine would look in an area without being permanent. It really worked so I put a big lattice trellis behind the brown pot. Hyacinth bean also on that big wooden trellis along the side of the house. That big ole trellis was built to hold an American Wisteria that is rather small right now. It's about 3 ft from the house so I can control the vine with mowing and don't get a big build up of moisture on my house wall.

I'm so excited about coming up on my 3rd year for my landscape, when plants really get going. I also did a really big hedge bed between my yard and the neighbor's. It has an open french drain of river rock. The trees should really get going finally. I managed somehow to make it appear as tho a path curves around to the gate. It was an accidental, but nice, layout. My front yard is pie shaped and small. I've never had that before. It's a real challenge.

Meanwhile, where are YOUR garden pics??? I need something green to look at! :)

I stayed away from mulches so the wildflowers would spread. Unfortunately, heat and free roaming dog urine made them ratty looking. Even the xeric perennials looked ratty. I think some type of mulch (gravel or wood) would really help my hell strip.

There is a good chance I'm going to copy a bunch of what you have so don't be surprised! Great job :)

I moved into San Antonio early Nov. 2007

In the beginning:

Sept 2008

March 2009

April 2010

Here is my new "child". Here name is Maeve and she weighs 6.5 lbs.
Christmas eve of 2009 I had to have snickers (the cocker) put down.

Kathy

Kathy - Love seeing those pics every time. Your dog is so cute and I'm sure she's a great companion for you.

PJ - I used ideas from all over town in mine so copy away and add your own touch. Shopping centers and restaurant parking lots are my primary source of inspiration.

The zebra grass is brown now, but still looks really good. The feather grass is green so that helps a lot.

The gravel was already there so "all" we had to do was clean it up. That involved sifting out 18 years of dirt and leaves. Our county has free mulch so we use that in other areas too.

I have a spot for wildflowers in the back yard. It's beginning to fill in so may have pictures this year.

Here's another thread on updates I also posted last summer.

Adorable puppy I'll bet it has a lot more energy than a Cocker! I'm guessing Maeve is either a chihuahua or a terrier?

I lost my old girl(Clemie) in July 2010. That puppy in the picture (nose pressed to the ground working up to digging arrrg!)kept Poppy (other dog) from getting too depressed.
His name is Cajun and he's NOT the Shepard mix they said he was at the shelter. He's a Kelpie of some sort (Australian farm dog) and is extraordinarily hyper. *Sigh* I know how to handle a Shepard. He keeps Poppy going tho. In fact, she hides from him to get in a nap. He'll keep her young!

Will be having to readjust to the Carolinas, and a whole new mix of plants.

When I asked about your boys, I meant your human boys. If you think they would like to grow bird house gourds, email me and I will send you some seeds. The vines grow really fast. plantmaven@gmail.com

I used the lasagna method with newspaper and mulch.
How did you get away with that beautiful yard with an HOA? I thought they were super strict about % of grass or whatever. I'm not surprised they missed a tree. Most HOAs I know of are truly bizarre and kind of dopey.

I'm going to have my DH post a picture of the boys and the entire yard (missing from these pics) with the hedge bed. It's close enough to being done to see what I'm going for.

My 16yr old is taller than his dad. My 10 yr old is still "the baby" but don't tell him that. In a couple years he'll look almost like a grown man too. Folks weren't kidding when they said your children grow up overnight somehow. They'd love to grow gourds. I'll email you thanks.

I like terriers. My DH's auntie raised Cockers for show. Good Lord they had a ton of hair. My mom raised the ultra hairy Afghans. My mutt dogs are always smooth coated. They shed like any other dogs but always appear shiny and clean even when WAAAY overdue for grooming. A quick bath (no snarls to deal with), a slicker brush and it's DONE.

Rick, what are you doing hiding your move in this thread? Guys! Well dish it out sir! Where in the Carolinas? What do you know about your area? Are you happy,sad or indifferent?
Are you taking plants with you? Are you gunna brag about gardening in normal soil? C'mon let us know!

The plant mix, depends on exactly where we end up. There can be a 2-3K ft. elevation differential.

Think Rhododendron, Azalea, Wisteria, and the like. Not to mention cherry, dogwood, and apple. (or peach)

My niece has pics of black bear wandering across her yard. LOL.

We expect to be about 2 hrs.-2.5 hrs. from the Great Smokey Mountain National Park, more or less.

I am sure it is dragging for you as you wait for April.

Kathy

Some advice....find out what your retirement plan really allows you to do now, and not when you retire. Make adjustments accordingly.

Still not perfect, but at least I will have flexibility and control, in spite of how hard my retirement plan wanted to make it, for me.

However, that did create some frustrations, over about a month's time.

The bummer is that interest rates are rising again, and we have little squirm room to make the move with. (sigh) Now we have to hope things stabilize so we can still get it done. Higher house prices, with higher interest rates, is not a workable combo.

Very nice but how are people supposed to get out when parked in the street? lol. Are there any other houses with yards like that? I had thought about growing roses, etc in the heck strip while leaving some grass for people to get onto when getting out of car. I have whole corner lot of it to work with but it's the dreaded big limestone rocks that is not exactly very motivating for me...

I just planted a few more Shantung maples for much needed shade since my house faces west which can be brutal. Unfortunately, that's like 4-5 years for those small ones to get big enough for shade to make any difference. 6 Shantung maple in the front/side yard. I'm trying to turn the yard into a maple forest. It should be specular when they fill out some and produce mixed red and yellow fall color. Hopefully, I'd be able to grow azaleas in raised bed underneath maple trees one day.

I wouldn't put any plants with thorns or spikes that aren't set way back or potted. I have cactus in pots around baby trees to protect them from dogs. (No dogs will go the cactus btw.) Thorny roses would grab folk's clothes near a sidewalk.
Those Maples sure aren't in any big ole hurry. I remember how pretty your maples were not too long ago. I'll bet they'll be spectacular one day. Maple leaves are great mulch for acid plants.

The guy next door has a good sized Japanese garden with a water feature and it all in the front yard. I'll ask to take a picture of his gorgeous maple( a curvy Shantung that weeps a bit?). It also has a 8ft palm, a dwarf Pomegranate, and a lot of evergreen flowers and ground covers. It's really neat. He has privets 3/4 the way down for a hedge. You can see them in the last picture over to the left. Those privet are at least 10 ft from his house and lead to his back gate. If you squinsh your eyes really hard you can see his fig tree in front of them. It's small now but not for long! His inferno strip has a brick/step stone path and this very sad, half dead dwarf yaupon in it. Grass looks so crummy here it detracts from his garden. He's thinking about taking out the sod too. A few other houses in and around on other streets are getting in the act with a sidewalk garden. One house has Lirope(sp?) looks pretty nice. Another house has CMs that will look really good when they are bigger. The only other one I can remember has heavy mulch with amaryllis.

You KNOW they recommend Trident Maples as sidewalk trees in Fort Worth right? LOL!