I just acquired the landscape from hell

[spinbaby]

We bought a new house--downsizing from a large house with lots of stairs to a ranch house. The lady who lived there before fancied herself a landscape designer and had spent a huge amount of money buying expensive plants and arranging them in ways she thought were attractive. The thing is, she planted them with no regard for how big they were going to get or whether they liked sun or shade. We have hostas frying in the sun, peonies struggling in the shade, a clematis and a rose fighting it out for the same flimsy support, a blue spruce clipped into a fancy shape planted six inches from the foundation, dead bushes all over the place because the lady just plunked them into the clay with out any prep. Also yard ornaments--I've tossed more decorative doodads than I can count.

Lesson of the day is that spending lots of money doesn't get you a good garden.

[elleng]

1. OY!

Good luck with whatever reconstruction you do!

[Curmudgeoness]

2. Oh, I wish I could have the doodads tossed this way!

I also have a landscape from hell, but it is partly my own doing. Planted things that people gave me when they were thinning things out...and I should have known that things that are free are not free from nightmares. Invasive is more like it. So I have given up trying to plant anything new and I decorate with doodads instead of flowers that will just be swallowed up by my nightmares.

But I am sure that you will get things fixed in your landscape. There is always work when you buy a new place. Hopefully, you can move a lot of those fancy plants to more appropriate places and end up with a lovely yard.

[NickB79]

3. I've gotten better results with wild-collected seed than any expensive store-bought plants

My 500 sq. ft prairie restoration garden, grown using native species I grew from seed collected in local prairie preserves, was so beautiful in flower this summer that it convinced my wife to go along my plan to convert a sizeable chunk of our 1.5 acre yard into prairie, orchard and vegetable garden.

Between the free seeds, free library books, and a decent amount of sweat, I've grown and planted thousands of plugs around the yard, worth thousands of dollars.

[BigDemVoter123]

4. Yikes.

I had the same issue at my old place. Huge plantings in a much too small space! Nightmare.