Curb Appeal

Hey, hey, hey!

Did the temps dip at the end of last week where you are?  It was honestly so chilly here in the mornings.  We had to layer up and throw on some mitts to keep warm at the bus stop.  Unbelievable that it's supposed to be in the high teens again this week.

The builder finally gave us grass. As you know from this post, we've been waiting since we moved in for this to happen.

Curb appeal is something that is pretty important to us.  We both love how much of an impact it can make on a home.

The problem is starting with a blank slate can be pretty overwhelming.  I decided that I wanted to keep the front garden relatively sparse and simple.  The backyard gardens will be the ones with an abundance of florals and size.  Gardening is a lot of work and it can take a lot of your time to keep it under control and looking good.  At the last house, I found that I just couldn't keep up and I didn't want that to happen again.

I absolutely love grasses so my plan was to incorporate a few of them in the front as well as my favourite, peonies and then a few shrubs that would act as "anchors".  With my plan in hand, we headed to the nursery.

And soon after, we got to planting our new garden.

Grasses...check.  Anchors...check.  Peony...check.

We also planted some tulips and daffodils, hello spring garden!

Now, one major decision that we have yet to make is what size of tree to purchase.  You see, the problem is that trees are rather expensive. We missed the major sale and it doesn't look as though anymore will be happening until next year.  We don't want to wait until next year to plant a tree, we would most definitely love to have one now.

Did you see Sarah's House 4, the Curb Appeal episode?  Well, that episode is playing over and over again in my head.  She made a point to purchase a rather mature tree for the front yard.

What a huge and immediate impact it made!  We would love to go this route.  We wouldn't get as big of a tree (I can only imagine how much this one cost), but to purchase a mature tree vs a young one would be fabulous.

The October Maple in the picture above, it's the one I want.  It's stunning, just stunning.  The leaves turn a gorgeous shade of red in the fall (they are green the rest of the year).  It is definitely more expensive than a younger tree (this tree is about 5 years old), that would be about 1/2 of the size of this one.  We just need to realize that we may not be living in this house forever (military life), however, that's also part of the reason that we want to get a bigger tree, so that we can enjoy it while we're here.  The other issue is that because it's over a certain size, the 3 year warranty that the nursery offers is void if they don't plant it.  The cost to plant this bad boy is almost the same price as the tree.  We don't have a problem planting it on our own, but to not have the warranty isn't very appealing.

So, do we spend the money and get a tree that we can enjoy or get a small tree and just have a tree.

Decisions, decisions.....although I think I already know the answer to this one. haha.

I'll share more pics once we have the garden all planted.  We still need to find a great slab rock for the garden that the tree will be planted in (along with a few tall grasses) and we need to get some more dirt delivered.

So this week will be a busy one, but a fun one.  Dirt, trees and digging!  It's a process, but we sure do love it!

Cheers,