I have some outdoor photos to share today :) This year, I didn’t get the chance to share an updated house tour, but I figured a five year landscaping update was much better! It’s the height of summer / growing season around here, so it’s a good time to snap some garden photos.
The idea for this post came from a weird comment I got, ha. I’ll be honest, we live on a busy street and it’s a very public spot, so I get a lot of feedback on our garden. Anyways, I was watering my plants or weeding or something, and this particular guy was like, “wow you’ve got a lot of hostas, just wait until next year.” In kind of a disdainful tone.
I thought to myself… why, what’s going to happen next year!?
Because the majority of these hostas have been here for years! Having a DIY home and renovation blog is a great way to remember exactly when you did a project, ha. So I went on my/this website and checked back to the post about landscaping along a sidewalk. Written 5 years ago! Bingo, wouldn’t it be great if I share what my sidewalk flower garden looks like now!?
Before we can appreciate the five year update, let me remind you where we started:
Of course, the real before was just grass/lawn! You can see how we started this garden in the original post from 2021.
And ready to see what it looks like now!?
The photo above is the only “current” photo from June. And the rest were taken this week. I wanted to show the small line of weeds we get in the front at the sidewalk edge. AND you can sort of see the yellow flowers we get in our sedum-esque lawn.
I’m not a perfection gardener. Trust me, I pull a LOT of weeds all summer long. But I want this flower garden to be more relaxed. In the last 2-3 years, I’ve only planted perennials in this garden and the idea is that it will all fill in by itself naturally and there will be less visible mulch.
Did I mention this is a busy sidewalk!? We’re right next to a bus stop too, so I also have to pickup garbage and cigarette butts. Which means I really don’t care that the mulch might get a little wild and meander to the sidewalk. Heck, it was probably a dog peeing/walking that moved it out of the way in the first place.
The reason I put the landscaping along the sidewalk in the first place was to stop people from cutting through our lawn. It’s worked! But of course, that also means I get all the fun comments :)
I’m sorry for the gentlemen I personally offended with my use of hostas. But guess what!? They are SUPER hardy, they grown really well in almost any environment, and they are budget friendly.
Check out this post if you want to learn some tips on how to save money gardening!
I do have a variety of plants (not just hostas), don’t worry.
But again, hostas are a great plant! (And our oldest loves them).
Check out how much the hostas have grown over the last five years:
I’ve also divided the solid bright green ones with the big leaves a few times. The photo above definitely shows how well time works in your favour with gardening!
Flower Garden Corner Area
Our widest section has a big rock in the middle, and definitely has the biggest variety of plants.
In case you didn’t know, we found that huge rock when we dug up the yard to build our garage. Then I dragged it the 100 feet over to the corner of our lot for free decor.
I try to vary the heights of my plants – and put the shorter ones in the front (ie: next to the sidewalk or road). Some of these still have a lot of growing to do, but I’ve got time to wait :)
We created the rock border using free stones we found nearby. This end area gets wiggled around each year because the snowplow may scrape them away a bit.
And honestly, don’t look too closely at the “grass” nearby. The Husband cut all the tall pieces but then they fell into my flower garden landscaping and it’s annoying to pick it all up.
Here’s another good before and after of this area:
The three sedums are still behind the rock and doing well! Now the rock doesn’t look as big, ha.
And another couple before and afters for fun :) (Oh, those purply/pink things in the before were cordylines and annuals, so they didn’t last long).
The photo above shows those three original sedum plants a bit better.
One thing I have a lot of in the current flower garden is the purple Blazing Star. Honestly, I didn’t know I had chosen so many (bought them over two years and forgot what I had, oops!).
(That orange plant in the front is a gold spirea and is supposed to get super big).
But yes, back to the Blazing Star. They grow super well and will eventually be all fuzzy along the stem.
It’s a great pollinator plant and fun to look at… but I think they’re a bit too spready for me.
As in, I had a LOT of offshoots that were nearby to the original one I planted. I’m worried they may take over the garden…
I kind of prefer my plants to be more individual /separated. Again, I do want to garden to fill up so you don’t see as much mulch. But I don’t want it to be all one plant. I just did a google search to remind me of the name and it said they didn’t spread aggressively. Ha, maybe I’ll make sure to deadhead them this fall to stop the nearby sprouting.
Things to Work On
One area I want to fix/address better is the front corner. If you saw in the original landscaping post, I never put landscaping fabric in that spot.
I put a variety of ground cover plants, and I was hoping the absence of landscape fabric would help them spread more easily. While true, I did get a big grassy/clover area. That really died down with the crazy heat / no rain we had.
Think I may dig up the weedy portion and put another groundcover or two.
But let’s go back around to the rest of the flower garden, shall we?
Again, I have a lot more plant variety in this wider corner section compared to the main row with mostly hostas.
And yes, the grass/lawn isn’t the best. It’s greenish. And we barely have to cut it, so that’s a plus.
And let’s all pretend we don’t see all the street/utility boxes :)
Can you believe how big those hostas got!? Had I not separated it, it would easily be 4-5 times bigger too.
Be honest… are you pro hosta?
Or do you think there are too many?
We’re not planning on being in this house forever, so I’m not going to do any big landscaping overhauls to this sidewalk flower garden. I’ll tell you one thing though, I’m definitely going to be dividing and reusing a lot of these plants for our new house!
It will be nice to be somewhere a little less busy.
Where the house is tucked back a bit more from the street. Maybe there won’t be a sidewalk either…
Other Flower Garden Areas
While the landscaping along the sidewalk is the longest/biggest area, I do have a few more gardens to share.
Next to our front door is the only original garden. We changed the surround when we updated the driveway and front steps.
The orange day lilies were original to the house, and are super common in our area.
One thing I did to this garden was pull out all the lily of the valley and move them to our other sidewalk garden. There were some of these purple bellflowers tucked away too, but I do yank them every now and then.
When I moved the lily of the valleys, the purple bellflowers moved too. I’ve heard they are both invasive-y, and last year I took out as much as the lilies as I could. (A few more popped up this spring). So far the purple bellflowers have stayed in their original spot.
For the garden in front of the fence, I’m prioritizing tall flowers. We’ve had good success the last few years, but I lost some of my coneflowers and switched things up a bit this year. It used to be alternating between purple bellflowers and pink coneflowers.
Honestly, we still have another month-ish before the coneflowers even reach peak height/bloom. I had to transplant some of the purple bellflowers this spring, and they didn’t look very nice for a long time. (Like, maybe they’ll be okay next year).
There are some hydrangeas in this area too, but they take foreeeeveeeeerrrr to bloom.
Finally, I have the last boulevard area that I tried making a flower garden the last year and a half. NO landscaping fabric was used, and it’s always a battle with weeds. For this area, I wanted only low plants (perennials) but I’ve also put in some annuals here this year.
Flower Gardens 5 Years Later
While I mentioned that a weird comment was the inspiration for this post, it’s not always bad!
There are a lot of people who talk to me about the flowers and say how nice it is. This year, one of my peonies bloomed for the first time (only one bud!) and multiple people kept asking what it was, or saying they would walk by every day to see when it would open.
And technically, I have one last area/boulevard that I’ve started to grow things. The idea is that it’s a “wildflower” zone to attract bees and butterflies. Aka where I don’t care about perfect placement of plants, and don’t mulch or weed that often.
I think the real testament to these plants, is how well they last and come back each year. Trust be when I say we get a LOT of snow here, and they are covered longer than they are not some times.
And of course, the main reasoning for the flower garden was to keep dogs/people out of our yard, ha.
So if you’re ever worried that the teeny tiny plants/perennials you put in don’t look too good… trust me, they’ll get bigger! Eventually, your garden may grow to the point where you have to regularly divide and cut them back too :)
Were there possibly too many photos in this five year landscaping update post…? Who cares! Ha, if you happened to see a plant or flower you want to know more details about, let me know!
If you are worried that landscaping is cost prohibitive, check out this post on how to save money on outdoor plants. In the past 2-3 years, I’ve added less and less perennials to the main sidewalk flower garden. I *think* we may need 1-2 more plants to fill the last few open spots, but we’ll see.
OH and we re-mulched this year too for the first time (I think) in the last five years. It’s about 18-20 bags for all our different areas, ha.
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