Project Modern Farmhouse: Landscaping & Tree Trimming
Hi! Welcome to the "Project Modern Farmhouse" series. In the next 10 or so posts, we'll be going through the "nitty-gritty" of how we polished up this diamond in the rough. If you just want to see the after pictures, that's cool, head on over here.
Just a heads up...these blog posts are also treated as personal conversation with you, the reader. Sometimes, things may not be exactly grammatically correct. Sometimes, I just get so excited that I may word-vomit a post that's circulating in my head. Please forgive my millennial mind and form of writing.
One of the first things we did with this house was...well, find the house underneath those trees and bushes. We allllllmost had an "uh-oh" with the roof and rotted out siding, but we'll discuss that more in the final post, "Project Modern Farmhouse: The Uh-Ohs, Surprises, and Challenges." [Coming Soon]
So we're back to the landscaping and tree trimming portion of the renovation. I found Paco one afternoon while I was riding my bike home from work. I know, SO millennial. Unfortunately, that didn't last too long; it gets hot in the summer in Texas. Since we're being honest here, I had no clue what to look for in a tree service company. We just totally lucked out and hit the jackpot with Paco. I mean, he had a branded truck wrap and everything. That makes him totally legit, right? More importantly, he had a phone number, active website, and even a Facebook page.
I gave him a call, he was quick to respond and set-up an initial drive-by to give me a quote. Because I wanted to seem like I knew what I was doing, I told him I had two more quotes coming and that I would get back to him. I did find two other potential tree-trimmers, but they were TWICE as much, didn't have nearly his level customer service, and weren't able to come out as quickly. I'm telling you, we really lucked out in finding Paco on the first try. He has a very well run business, is quick and responsive to requests, and works with email/call/text--whoa, connectivity! Side note, I could even pay with a credit card right there on the job site. We later learned that's not always the case with some contractors. Soooooo, a couple of times we had to go get some checks printed, PRONTO!
check out the "before" pics below. See what I mean about finding the house?
As I said earlier, the first thing Paco did was find the house! The tree was shaped up and thinned out. Not gonna lie, I really thought we had made a mistake when I saw how much was being hauled off. The trees in this neighborhood were the initial draw for us. With all of the new development and tree planting going on in our hometown, it's rare to find trees this mature in a neighborhood unless the land was previously a horse ranch, or in our case, one of the first organized neighborhoods for the city. But when all was said and done, it turned out beautifully. It drew your eye up into the sky and somehow made the tree look even taller.
The front bushes had run their course. They were the initial plants from the early 80s. We had those removed. Double knockout rose bushes were a thing in our area of Texas a few years ago. They bloomed with large, beautiful, colorful roses. EVERYBODY planted them in their personal yard and even local shopping centers. They required little to no maintenance, were drought resistant (HUGE deal in Texas), and really brought life and beautiful color even to a McDonald's parking lot. Unfortunately, later came the disease. It infected virtually all of these rose bushes. We tried to save our rose bushes as you'll see in the picture of the house before we painted it. But we too, eventually lost out to the disease.
Paco ended up just pulling ALL landscaping out of the front for us and reducing the size of the overall flower beds. Kudos to Paco and his team for doing all of this in the middle of July in Texas heat. By this point, we had started hand-watering the yard. The grass responded very well and started to perk up. I know, one side at the top is St. Augustine grass and the other side is Bermuda grass. It's how we bought it. The original home owner probably had trouble getting the grass to grow on the tree side because there was so much shade, hence the St. Augustine sod plant. Hopefully, over the next couple years the St. Augustine will take over. I think it looks greener and nicer.
Here's your direct side-by-side. It literally looks like a completely different house.
Another area I wouldn't exactly call myself an expert in...landscaping. Insert Stewie's "Mom, Mum, Mommy..." in your mind, and it was mom to the rescue. (Thanks, mom!) She helped me pick out some great Ligustrum bushes that would be drought resistant while also bringing a bright, vibrant green color to contrast with the black and white. I really wanted potato vines, but that's just not possible with our city's rabbit population at the moment. We planted Ligustrum bushes for some height in the back, 'flirt' nandina bushes in front, 2 crepe myrtles on the outside of the flower beds, and pansies in the flower pots at the entry.
Another lesson learned, you need twice as much landscaping as you think. I think I had to go back to get more 2 or 3 times. It's almost always more expensive than you would think. However, it's worth the cost, and your time and attention to water them, as it makes a huge difference to the curb appeal. We were very conscientious of this and made sure to buy perennial plants. That means they come back each year. Annual, means it only lasts for the year. Thankfully I had at least learned this basic lesson in my 8th grade science class. We had SO many projects in that class. One included virtually landscaping a yard. Who would have thought after all these years how big of a difference that teacher would have made in my life. Sadly, she has since gone to be with the Lord, but her life skills training with science projects and index card study assistance requirements will forever be with me.
Above is part of The process of selecting the the bushes and crepe myrtles at the nursery and then placing them in the flower beds before planting. we ended up doubling the amount of ligustrum bushes we initially purchased.
We didn't plant any flowers in the flower bed so that whomever ended up living here was able to pick their own or even add flower boxes to the windows if they so chose. We also went with black mulch to stick to the modern farmhouse color theme. Believe it or not, my mom and I planted these all by ourselves and hand-watered them every day, several times a day, for the first month to get them established. I now find yard work, especially hand-watering, to be a little therapeutic. It allows me to tune out and process my thoughts.
Well, that's it for today. As always, thanks for stopping by. Please feel free to leave a comment or question below. We hope you found this post enjoyable and insightful. Experts, don't be too critical of us ;-) This was our first renovation (other than our personal home).
By the way, this is NOT a sponsored post. I just think Paco's Tree Trimming Services is that great and wanted to share this with you. I would appreciate, however, if you told him Whitney and Chad Brubaker sent you. Because who knows, maybe we COULD get something sponsored some day. I'd love to put that "sponsor" towards helping widows keep the exterior of their homes and yards maintained. That's an ideal dream of mine that's hopefully for another day in the future. Check him out on Facebook or on his website.