Anonymous wrote:Eww, I hate tall grasses.

What sort of sun do you have in the front? Maybe some liriope? You just have to trim them back every other year or so.

Liriope is invasive--if you want low maintenance, don't plant:
http://www.usna.usda.gov/Gardens/invasives.html

go with the crepe myrtle or a spice bush

Get some laurel and some nandina for color. Host as are also very low maintenance.

Eww, I hate tall grasses.

What sort of sun do you have in the front? Maybe some liriope? You just have to trim them back every other year or so.

OP here. We pay someone $40 every other week to cut the grass in front and back. I am thinking we don't want anything tall, as our house is really small and I think the giant bushes make the house look even smaller.

How tall do the tall grasses get?

What about low groundcover options? Anything the resident bunnies will leave alone?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:crepe myrtle. Especially if you don't have trees out front. Helps immensely with utility bills.

How do they help with utility bills?

Shade?

Anonymous wrote:crepe myrtle. Especially if you don't have trees out front. Helps immensely with utility bills.

How do they help with utility bills?

crepe myrtle. Especially if you don't have trees out front. Helps immensely with utility bills.

If you get a lot of sun in your front yard, do some herbs such as Russian Sage and Rosemary. They due back a little in the winter but look great in summer with little care or water. Azaleas are a very low care plant. Maybe tear out old overgrown a sales and plant newer ones.

We pay $60 every two weeks for basic landscape care. Worth every penny.

Anonymous wrote:Boxwood will give you the same problem eventually as the azalea, but without the pretty flowers.

dwarf boxwoods won't exceed a certain size

Yardwork is cheaper than you think. Hire somebody to do some landscaping, then just get someone in for yardwork 3-4 times in the summer. It won't look great, but it won't make your neighbors mad!

Boxwood will give you the same problem eventually as the azalea, but without the pretty flowers.

Do some nice tall grasses. They're perennial and pretty. You have to cut them down once a year.

Dwarf boxwood

We have 3 ugly, awfully shrubs out front that we plan to get rid of this year. DH and I are not gardeners. In fact, we probably never should have bought a house and instead chosen a condo. But, we've got a 1/4 acre back yard yard so, it is what it is.

Our front yard is steeply sloped upward towards the house (good for a number of reason - small amount of grass that we pay someone else to cut and water runs away from our house!). We have these really unwieldy azalea bushes that dwarf our tiny rambler. We hate pruning them, birds live in them and I know our neighbors hate how unkempt they are. We are the only house on our block that looks unkept because of these ugly bushes. We do have the grass cut reasonably often spring though fall.

As soon as it isn't freezing cold, we plan to rip them out. What can we plant in their place that wont be difficult to maintain? All I want to do is occasionally water, and very occasionally weed.

When do we need to do this?