Until recently, a large evergreen shrub grew to the right of my garage door. It was there when we moved here fifteen years ago. Twice every year I dutifully trimmed it to a perfect mounded shape. In between, its shaggy growth hung over the driveway and covered part of the garage door. It grew so densely that snow wouldn’t fall through it, instead collecting on top in huge drifts that had to be shoveled off. And it got in the way when we shoveled the driveway. I hated that shrub! The only thing it was ever good for was that I could sweep the dirt from the garage floor out the door and under its branches.
Not long ago I was reading a book that with just one sentence inspired me to get rid of that shrub. It wasn’t a gardening book or even a landscaping book. It was a book about making your entire home a pleasant place to be. It started by asking what you see and how you feel when you enter your property. I thought immediately of that ugly shrub.
I can’t imagine why I hadn’t thought to remove it sooner. I have in some way changed almost every other feature of our home’s landscape over the years but it never occurred to me to do anything about that spot next to the garage door.
The next day my husband took a chain saw to the shrub and it was history. Underneath I found wonderful dark soil, enriched by years of garage sweepings and composted leaves and untouched by the burning rays of the sun. The shrub had been about four feet square so I had quite a nice new spot to fill.
First we bought a wrought iron trellis to stand in back of the area. I planted a clematis in front of it. Then I looked around the yard and found sedum and coreopsis that could be divided and planted there. I filled the rest of the bed with annual dusty miller, ageratum and spreading lobelia.
To keep the edges neat I laid bricks end to end even with the ground surface. This provides a nice flat surface for the lawn mower wheel to ride on, eliminating the need for the weed whacker.
The side of the garage right around the corner from the ugly shrub is also a place that has needed attention for years. Lilies of the valley, ferns, daffodils, a small mugho pine and a large mock orange grow there. No one ever sees this side of the garage except my neighbor when he mows his lawn so I hadn’t made it a priority. Simply by extending the bricks in a sweeping curve along the edge of that messy area cleaned it right up and made it look like a planned landscape instead of a neglected mess.
Maybe it’s time for some changes to your own landscape. Try to get an objective view of your property by stepping out to the sidewalk or road and pretending you are a visitor. Approach your yard the opposite direction from which you usually enter the driveway and notice what you see. Take a photo or two from a few different directions and see what stands out. You might have your own ugly shrub that needs replacing.
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