My wife and I have done a tremendous amount of work on our home and yard since we bought this property 12 years ago.
The front was completely bare with no flower beds or lawn of any kind.
The first thing we did was go to the hardware store and get some bricks to create a nice little flower bed under our living room window. The first year we populated it with yellow marigolds and purple celosias. Since the plants produced seeds, we have been getting new marigolds and celosias every year when the flowers start to bloom again. Once we put in the flower bed, we started adding hibiscus bushes and other shrubs to the front grass. Our landscaping design evolved with time, as we were both studying whatever we could as we went along. We live in a region that isn’t technically in the literal tropics, leaving us in the subtropical zone. Still, the sun intensity is undoubtedly crazy here during the summer. I bought a lot of ornamental cacti thinking that we could put them in full sun, but that was a mistaken assumption. In all of my life, I never would have thought that a cactus could get a sunburn, but it’s true. Once we finished the landscaping and gardening in our yard, we wanted to get a large privacy fence. Instead of getting an aluminum chain link fence, we opted for a pale white PVC fence. A plastic fence might sound flimsy, but these things are anything but. They’re strong, durable, and they look entirely nice from the road. Our fencing company didn’t rip us off either and provided a stellar deal for the entire fence installation. My wifey and I couldn’t be happier about our yard.