Blackburn Residence

A project in making sure my parents will never want to sell the house I grew up in.

This is a special project for me. It is a total overhaul of the front yard of the home I grew up in. For the 2022 portion of the project, we completely re-envisioned the northern half of the yard to address some issues that have arisen in the years since I was a child. What was once a perfect home plate area for Wiffle Ball had now become a rather unsightly blemish on my parents' beautiful 100+ year old home.

My parents had a few basic ideas but for the most part the design was left up to me. The big things that they knew they wanted were some sort of ornamental tree to screen the neighbors house when looking from the south side, hydrangeas that respond well to acidity changes in the soil and will turn blue, some larger boulders, and a "whoville" like ornamental evergreen for my mom. Other than that, they were very open to my ideas.

The two big issues that needed to be addressed were the lawn, or lack thereof, and the overgrown Amur Maple that had started to completely dominate the area. The lawn had become less of a lawn and more of a mat of wild violet and creeping Charlie. Over the years we lost our large elm trees on the south and southwest boulevards of the property, resulting in the lawn in front of the house burning up and dying due to the loss of its partial shade and the violet and creeping Charlie moving in. In addition to the weed lawn, we also had to address the Amur Maple which had become completely overgrown and ratty looking, not to mention the massive shallow roots it had been sending out starting to peek out of the soil and displacing the walkway going around the north side of the house.

The first step in this process, aside from discussing with my parents to get a rough idea of what they envisioned, was to clean up the site to see what we were working with. The Amur maple was the first to go, being cut down to a stump to be ground out. Then I sod stripped the remaining "lawn" area, removing any remaining weeds and roots from the lawn. After the sod removal and grinding the Amur maple and all its roots down we had a clean blank canvas and the ideas really started flowing.

Due to the fact I was working full time at a landscaping firm and this was a project on the side, instead of doing the whole install at once we did it in phased chunks. The first phase was amending and regrading the soil. We tilled in about 1.5 cu. yd. of Cowsmo TM manure to add some nutrients back to the soil as well as an extra yard of 1-1-1 soil for the berm with a reduced sand portion as the soil on site was already draining well (1-1-1 soil is equal parts black dirt, manure, and sand). Once the soil was amended it was time to move onto the next big phase; the woody perennials and the boulders. We decided to select a 2.5" balled and burlap single stem Eastern Redbud for the ornamental tree centered on the berm, and a #25 pot Acrocona Spruce that had been tipped to keep it small to fill my mom's "whoville tree" requirement on the west end of the berm. We also decided on a lighter yellow-green juniper (Daub's Frosted Juniper) to creep over the boulder wall and give a bright pop of color in the foreground. The other shrubs used were Hydrangea 'Bloomstruck' as our blue Hydrangea in the middle ground, and Weigela 'My Monet Purple Effect' as a smaller foreground shrub. 

 For the boulders we selected four 30-40" superior blue trap boulders and created a low retaining wall to add some depth to the scape as well as create an area for bulbs and annuals near the sidewalk. We went with the superior blue trap to tie into the 2-3” bluestone around the foundation plantings my father installed when I was young. This way, we just needed to power-wash the bluestone around the foundation rather than removing and replacing with the mulch used in the new plantings. We also used smaller blue trap chunks around the base of the Redbud to add a bit more texture and interest on the berm, as well as further aiding the transition to the smaller bluestone.

The next phase was selection and planting of perennials. Now, my dad's favorite color has always been yellow, so imagine my surprise when he said he does not want any yellow in the front! Not even a Black eyed Susan or two. He really wanted to do cool colors up front (purples, blues, and greens) and pink, but nothing too close to red. As far as perennials go, we had a fairly decent spread. Taller perennials included Big Bluestem 'Red October' to provide some extra screening and winter color, Perovskia 'Blue Jean Baby' for mid to late season color and fragrance, and Leucanthemum 'Becky' as daisies are both my mother and I's favorite flower (I even named my car Becky after this plant as it is all white). The medium to low perennials used more around the border included species such as Sedum 'Dazzleberry' for some light blue foliage around the corners, Salvia 'May Night' for season long blooming color, and Sedum 'Angelina's Teacup' for some bright, fine textured foliage to cascade over the stone wall until the Juniper's grow and creep over the stone as well. We also left two areas open to add some taller annuals to add as the seasons change; one behind the Juniper and boulder wall, and one close to the house that is more visible from the porch where they spend time in the summer. 

Once everything was planted, we covered the soil with my favorite mulch, the "super fine and rich" from Gerten’s. I highly recommend this mulch as it has a good neutral color, as well as the benefit of having the mulch "fines" which are the minuscule powdery like fragments of mulch. It is much easier for the fines to move into the soil and breakdown than big chunks of mulch, greatly improving soil quality over time.

Overall, this was my most involved project to date. Not only did I create the design, but also had to source all plant materials, boulders, soil and mulch, as well as installing all of it myself! I am very pleased with how the first portion of the project turned out and thankful I was granted the opportunity to make my parents fall in love with my childhood home all over again. By no means is the project done, with more changes coming this year in the form of new foundation plantings around the house, but it has been given its first facelift and is ready for part two.

*Note: This first part of the project was completed later in the season. As such, the photo stock is limited. More photos to come in Spring/Summer, along with updates on the next part - the foundation plantings.