Would you (or have you) removed flower beds/landscaping?

[Anonymous]

We moved into our current house about 4 years ago. There are flower beds running all around the sides and front of the house. And, then beds running down both sides of the longish, curved driveway. It looks to me like the beds were professionally landscaped at some point - probably when the house was built about 20 years ago. Some of the beds are around established trees.

The problem is that the flower beds are too much for me to maintain. I have to work on it in sections and I've never been able to mulch all the beds in one year. (I work full time outside the home and have 2 young boys.) I estimate it would take about 50-60 bags of mulch to cover all the beds. DH asked about removing some of beds but I'm hesitant because the whole design was well thought out and I don't want to remove most of the established trees (although are 3 that I'd readily get rid of). The other option is to keep the beds and hire a company to mulch each year. Or maybe I should do both -- remove some beds and hire a landscaper. We pay for lawn mowing I just have a harder spending $1000+ annually to mulch and clean up the flower beds.

I can easily see removing the beds run down the sides of the driveway. They just get in the way, anyway. And, if I had the money, I'd love to put down some pavers (or similar hard-scaping) to widen the front walkway and create a bit of a front patio. It still wonder if even doing that would leave me with too much landscaping to maintain.

Has anyone removed landscaping in their yard? How did you feel about after it was done?

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

OP we live in a neighborhood where old and young live together with many new families moving in. The new families usually take out the old and overgrown landscaping, even if it is organized in beds. They want a cleaner look, and that is fine. So go ahead. You might want to keep the tress b/c it takes a long time to grow them. You can buy a plastic over for around the trunks which makes for less work around the trees.

[Anonymous]

Can you make the changes incrementally, starting with the areas that are the most work for you? Maybe one or two changes would make it workable for you.

Also, I don't know where you are, but in my neighborhood, the Boy Scouts sell mulch and spread it for you for an extra fee. I tried it one year, and I'll never spread my own mulch again.

[Anonymous]

You should hire someone or move to a condo

[Anonymous]

We took out one big bed and replaced with sod - gave our kids more room to play and opened up our view. No regrets. We have several other beds that DH would love to tear up, but I'm hesitant. I imagine one day I might have time to make them lovely, but for now 2-3 are somewhat well maintained each year and 3-4 are a bit of a mess.

[Anonymous]

If you are willing to work with a landscape company, you can have them help you decide what to keep and what to get rid of to make it low maintenance. And/or you can hire them to do periodic maintenance. I have my people come and do a spring cleanup, then every three weeks or so during the growing season, then a fall cleanup. In addition to seeing and pruning, they do the mulch and fertilize the plants. I am happy to mow my own lawn and save the money to use on landscape maintenance. I think mature landscaping adds so much to curb appeal and a back yard we want to spend time in.

[Anonymous]

Our previous owner was a talented gardener.

I am not.

I tried for the first year we lived here, but by the second everything started to get overgrown and out of control. It stressed me out everytime I walked in my front door. Even though it was all so beautiful and well laid out, if you don't have the skills or time to care for it properly a nice garden will look terrible.

I had a friend over who was good at gardening, and she helped me figure out what I could take out, almost all of the overgrown bushy type plants that required pruning, and pointed me in the direction of plants that were pretty and low maintenance or flowers that looked nice but died after one season so they would never get overgrown or require attention like pruning. I felt so much better that day after I pulled everthing out and saw a garden that was not overgrown and overwhelming.

I say go for it! You will be happy you did.

[Anonymous]

If I were you, I would take out the beds along the driveway. Beds along the driveway are impractical anyway. Would that reduce the beds to an area you can manage?

[Anonymous]

We removed a lot of landscaping and planted grass in its place. We still have a number of beds that constantly need weeding and mulching and it's way too much work for us to do so we outsource it. We're planning this year on getting rid of a lot of the remaining beds and planting that with grass too.

We haven't touched the trees and we love having the extra space to run around in on the grass with the kids. The yard used to look beautiful for a few weeks a year, but the rest of the year it got so weedy and nothing was blooming anyways. Very happy we got rid of some of the landscaping.

[Anonymous]

We have taken out several beds at our summer house. Much easier to maintain grass and the beds didn't look that natural anyway. We've also focused on low maintenance plants (the previous owner was big on annuals). We do however pay to mulch the beds at both houses. Sometimes you can get away with every other year so it might be worth trying that.

[Anonymous]

NP who also bought a house that had been owned by a gardener. We did not have the time to tend all of the beds and plants the previous owner had. We kept the beds that were easiest to maintain (a little weeding and mulching) and the healthy trees, but took out the rest and replaced with sod. We spend so much more time outside now. Those plants and beds were a huge source of stress and they looked awful most of the time. Our only regret is that we didn't do it sooner. I wouldn't take out trees, but getting sod/grass has been wonderful!

[Anonymous]

OP here....Thanks!!

One of the trees I want to get rid of is looking very bad -- the nearby trees have grown blocking the sunlight. The other two trees were planted too close to house.

Now I've to figure out when would be a good time to remove these beds and plant grass (along side the driveway). And, if I can fairly easily dig up these shrubs (boxwood and barberry, I think) -- I think these shrubs were planted maybe 5 years ago.

[Anonymous]

I am one of those gardeners whose garden will give fits to whomever buys my house someday. Everything needs to be pruned, weeding needs to happen weekly or the place looks very unkempt. And what I would say to that future home owner - go for it. Rip it out. Put in sod. Do what makes you happy and looks nice to you. The garden was was made me happy, and that is why I did it. A plant is only a plant - you eat plants every day - there is nothing sacred about a boxwood or a peony that isn't also sacred about a head of lettuce.

[Anonymous]

We took out our beds and put in sod. The lawn is much more work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am one of those gardeners whose garden will give fits to whomever buys my house someday. Everything needs to be pruned, weeding needs to happen weekly or the place looks very unkempt. And what I would say to that future home owner - go for it. Rip it out. Put in sod. Do what makes you happy and looks nice to you. The garden was was made me happy, and that is why I did it. A plant is only a plant - you eat plants every day - there is nothing sacred about a boxwood or a peony that isn't also sacred about a head of lettuce.

Except that there are plants that actually provide a benefit to wildlife, which lettuce and certainly grass don't. And that grass, in order to look good, requires the use of chemicals that end up in the watersheds, while gardens can reduce runoff and don't require those chemicals. Just saying, otherwise I agree with you that OP should just do what makes her enjoy and not dread her outdoor space.