It's Finally Spring!!

The creeping phlox I just had to plant and surprise lilies popping out in the front planter

Now that spring has sprung, I'm turning my attention outdoors. When you buy a house in December, it's kind of a gamble what's gonna come up in the spring. One of the first areas I've begun tackling is this berm at the back of the property. 

We just love the beautiful spruce and bald cypress trees. To the left are a couple of rose bushes that are starting to green up. We would like to plant another tree behind the rose bushes next to the spruce. Anyone have any ideas??

Let me tell you, I was just eaten up over the lack of maintenance of this beautiful landscaping. There is a ring of large landscape rocks surrounding the berm. Over 50%, probably 75%, of the rocks were completely covered over with grass. The mulch had eroded, composted, seeded and grown a thick layer of sod. Covering those beautiful rocks! How many years did that take? You can see my pile of sod near the rose bushes as I've been making my way around the berm. Ughh...

Just off the patio is a ~1500 gallon pond with a little waterfall. As with everything else, it needs some tending to bring it back up to snuff. I'm interested to see what all the landscaping around it will turn out to be. We have a little bullfrog friend that croaks for us all night. It feels like we got our home in the country after all : ) I've been using barley hay bales to try to treat the green algae that's been growing since it started warming up. We've also talked about fish or algae eaters. We'll see how adventurous we get!


Then we get around to the back side. Gross! Just an empty hill and a big eyesore of a waterpump. Josh has mentioned building a stone "well" around the back of the pump to better camouflage it. I'm thinking maybe terraced planters below that. I'd love input or ideas! I just cannot handle it staying like this. The kids think it's a running hill and I know it's just going to turn into a weedy mess.

So that's where we're at so far for the outside! I'd love to hear your ideas!