This is going to be an extremely short post as most of the work was completed on this side of the house a long time ago through several other projects. Following the first phase of water diversion there wasn’t anything left to do but remove the old plants and put in the new. During that phase, I pulled out the old brick window-well and installed a steel one that was a full foot taller. Once that was completed approximately five cubic yards of soil was added to re-grade the slope. Water now properly runs out to the sidewalk instead of up against the foundation.
Removing well-rooted plants is something that takes a lot of muscle and time to complete. This side of the house has a lot of OLD yews, several well-rooted barberry bushes, and an arborvitae that had been trimmed very poorly for years, making it too time consuming to correct. I was able to transplant one of the barberry bushes to the East side of the house. Once I get that posted, you will see what one I am talking about; every other plant was taken to the township building for disposal.
I decided to plant two Sand-Cherries and trim them so they form a thick but tall bush of sorts, two yellow bushes (I cannot for the life of me remember the species), four American Holly, and one Gold Thread Cypress. These will all grow extremely tall, which is exactly what I want. This side of the house gets hammered by the sun and becomes extremely hot. These plants should absorb much of that light and keep the house cool in summer. They will also help slow the wind that hits this face in winter, possibly helping a small amount with heating costs.
Finally, in typical fashion, I had to add cacti and succulents to the mix. I planted a very cold hardy type of stone-crop, a bunch of hen and chicks, and an eastern prickly pear cactus. All of this stuff was small and ill-looking when I planted it, but with the right soil mix, plenty of sun, and a few weeks, the plants are growing like crazy and have actually required a small amount of pruning!
Feel free to check out the gallery below for an extra photo or two, my personal favorite being the desert corner. The change between first planting and what it looked like as of writing this two months later is amazing!
