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Before & After: Circular Garden

Before & After Circular Garden SimpleDecoratingTips.com


Looking at the ‘before’ it’s hard to believe how cute the ‘after’ of this ‘before and after circular garden’ could be!

I’ve added shopping links for you in the post as well as all grouped together at the end of the post.

A few weeks ago I shared how antsy I was getting to be able to get out and start the landscaping around our home. (At that time I was researching garden design ideas for inspiration. Here’s that post with some pretty ideas.) We bought this late mid-century house about a 1 1/2 years ago and have been crazy busy renovating it top to bottom… Just in case you missed all that, here is what it looked like a few months before we actually purchased it: (you can read everything about our renovations here)

Before & After Circular Garden SimpleDecoratingTips.com
Before we bought the house.

‘A little awkward and not very charming’ is how I would have described it. Anything that was close to symmetrical wasn’t quite, yet nothing was asymmetrical in a pleasing way… it was just plain awkward!

Last summer, after the addition was completed, after the porch was done, and after the roof and gutters were done, we painted it. Getting rid of that blue and maroon was such a relief to my eyes! Carrying the same goal I’ve had on the inside, adding charming character, and bringing that concept out to the exterior in a ‘Colonial Revival Cottage-y’ sort of way.

To not overwhelm myself with the landscape, both on the amount of labor involved and the designing, I mentally split each area up into sections. The first section is on the East side of the house… the circular garden.

This is what I was facing this spring:

Before & After Circular Garden SimpleDecoratingTips.com
This Spring… it’s a plain jane mess!

The best thing about this space is that when the house was built, they had wonderful insight to add this charming circular sidewalk around to the two doors, (back in the day, they each led into a separate basement apartment… now we have a mother-in-law apartment on one side and have incorporated the other side into more living space)

Other than that sidewalk, the garden itself was just a mess. There were some perennials worth saving, none were planted in any rhyme or reason, so all had to be moved.

I went right back up to my office and sketched out a design:

Before & After Circular Garden SimpleDecoratingTips.com

Having a planned design on paper really helps me to stay on task. Though I may change my mind, or refine the plan, as I’m doing the actual plant shopping, this gives me the basic idea of what I’m going for.

Back to the grunge work:

Before & After Circular Garden SimpleDecoratingTips.com
Hard work removing the landscape fabric layered under mulch and dirt.

Can I just say I am NOT a fan of landscape fabric under bark mulch?!! As the bark mulch deteriorates and becomes soil, on TOP of the fabric, it buries the fabric into the dirt. Eventually seed and plants sprout and grow in that dirt on top of the fabric and their roots work their way through the fabric firmly adhering it to the earth.

Okay, maybe ‘not a fan’ is too light… I detest it! It was soooo hard getting it out of here! I’d try to pull it up where it was exposed and it’d just rip off. I’d try to rake it out, but the dirt was too compacted on it. I’d try to dig it out, but the shovel had a hard time going through it.

I was able to rake up as much red mulch as I could to start with. I found the snow shovel, (which wasn’t put away due to a snow storm we had just a week or two prior) worked great to rake it into and dump. (I’m not a fan of red mulch either… I like the dark brown or black color, looks more like dirt… I’m not sure what the red dyed color is going for? The red clay soil out west? I don’t know, but I don’t really care for the look of the red mulch. I actually think it detracts from what should be the star, the plants.)

Before & After Circular Garden SimpleDecoratingTips.com
Snow shovel works in the garden too.

Clearing out the mulch and landscape fabric and old plants turned out to be days of work, (seems like when I was young, it would have been an afternoon). By a passing eye, the circular garden didn’t seem to show much, if any improvement yet, but I knew I was making headway in a sea of mess.

As I was going along, I was transplanting…

Before & After Circular Garden SimpleDecoratingTips.com
Transplanted the Stella d’Oro Daylilies.

All the Stella d’Oro Daylilies I found as I was digging up the circular garden, got new homes in the small beds flanking the doors. (you can read my tips on how to transplant them here)

The tulips all got moved to each side of the little stoops… Not an ideal time to move them, but it was now or never, so I went for it. What survives, survives, what doesn’t well so be it…

Before & After Circular Garden SimpleDecoratingTips.com
Transplanted tulips and other perennials in a symmetrical pattern.

The other perennials got dug up, divided evenly and replanted in a symmetrical design following the outside curves. I know that there was Moonbeam Coreopsis, but I’m not sure what the other plants are called. I watched them both thrive last year in among the  weeds, so I’m thinking they’ll do great in a more weed-free environment.

Finally, the mess was out, and the transplanting was done.

Now it was hardscape time…

Before & After Circular Garden SimpleDecoratingTips.com
Hardscape brought in.

The birdbath and one of the benches we had, (moved from our other house) I found a (mostly) matching bench to complete the look for the front. We arranged them in a very strong symmetrical pattern, emphasizing the circular shape. The inspiration for the circular shape is of course the overall shaped of the garden, but also on our house there is a cute rounded scallop trim that I’ve played off with some of the exterior accents repeating a circular pattern here and there.

We had a pallet of leftover brick pavers that I used to edge the garden with and also square pavers for the path that goes right up the center of the garden, around the birdbath to the wall of the house.

I ordered an arched top trellis to add some vertical height on that wall. It was a cinch to put together, and a welcome break from the back-breaking work clearing that garden out!

Before & After Circular Garden SimpleDecoratingTips.com
Put together a trellis.

The trellis I chose is one that is a vinyl/resin type material and won’t need to be painted or stained later on… And with that curved arch on the top, it is the finish of the circular shape on that side of the garden. (I have a weird pattern thing constantly buzzing in my head! LOL)

Next it was time to plant the shrubs and perennials that I purchased. We live in a zone 3 or 4 depending… In the country I had to plan on a zone 3, in town now we can plan on a zone 4, with some very protected micro-climate areas in the south side of the yard being a zone 5. But that is rare, I  typically shop for zone 3 or 4 to be safe.

When selecting the plants for the garden, I considered the blooms, the leaf shapes, the expected plant sizes, as well as the overall plant shape, plus the growing zone and sun light needs. It’s a lot to consider, but fun, like treasure hunting to find the right specimens for each space.

For under each window, I chose ‘Twist ‘n Shout’ hydrangea that blooms throughout the summer.

Before & After Circular Garden SimpleDecoratingTips.com
Planted a pair of hydrangea ‘Twist ‘n Shout’ under each window.

To eventually create a mini room within the center of the circular garden, I selected ‘Straight Talk’ Privet to circle around the path of the birdbath.

Before & After Circular Garden SimpleDecoratingTips.com
Privets ‘Straight Talk’ flanking birdbath in a circular planting pattern.

On the arched top trellis is a ‘Candy Stripe’ Clematis vine.

Before & After Circular Garden SimpleDecoratingTips.com
Installed the trellis and planted a clematis ‘Candy Stripe’.

I have some ‘Jacob’s Ladder’ plants between the path and birdbath that should fill in that center circle nicely, hopefully without over growing that space too much.

Here is what it looks like now.

Before & After Circular Garden SimpleDecoratingTips.com
East side of house after circular garden done.

Under and around the benches I planted a creeping Thyme variety. It doesn’t look like much yet, because everything is just a baby plant or just starting to grow from the winter. Therefore, I made a computer enhanced image for you to visualize what it should look like in a couple of years… if all goes well!

Before and after circular garden SimpleDecoratingTips.com
If all goes as planned…

That was so fun to make!! (the computer version that is… the real version was a lot of work! LOL)

Here are more gardening and landscaping projects:

Vintage-Seahorse-Birdbath-Re-Do
Dry Stack Stone Planter
DIY Compost Bins
Potting Shed
Backyard Boat Pond
DIY Simple Deer Proofing
raised bed container gardening title
before  after front garden landscaping
How to Prune a Peegee Hydrangea
before  after circular garden
before and after front terraced garden
we had to cut down 13 trees
1-in the garden with water walls and cloches
Ingenious Tips to DIY this Planter
Turtles and Window Boxes
install this arbor and fence in one day
DIY Brick Edging
Transplanting Stella D'Oro Daylilies
spring-planter-arrangement
Garden & Landscape Inspiration
moving-a-screened-gazebo-onto-the-property
2 pergolas  garden update
Humidity Tray for Orchids
Creative-Planters
Window-Boxes-inside-a-2nd-story-porch
rooftop-garden
Creating-an-Oasis-with-a-Water-Fountain
snug-harbor-farm
Tips on Forcing Bulbs Indoors
The-Story-of-a-Blue-Jay-Title-Page
The-Beauty-of-Fences1
What-is-this?
How I re-did these Concrete Lions
Before and After Landscape and a DIY Pergola
DIY Window Well Installation
Growing Grass in a Vintage Scale
DIY Hanging Terrarium
Kid's Craft DIY Miniature Fairy Garden

Thanks so much for stopping by! Please feel free to follow and share this blog with your friends, as well as on Facebook, Pinterest, Flipboard, Bloglovin, YouTube and Instagram! I appreciate you reading along.

This post can also be found at these other sites: Between Naps on the Porch, Refresh Restyle, My Repurposed Life

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Welcome to Simple Decorating Tips! I’m Liz, the author, and I’m so glad you’re here!

My goal is to encourage you with DIY tips, techniques and tutorials so you feel empowered to join in the fun! Along with this DIY blog, I have a DIY shop, Frame and Frills!
Frame and Frills is in Wisconsin. I stock amazing DIY products! Fusion Mineral Paints, ReDesign Transfers, Decoupage, Waxes, loads of DIY Goodies, re-done Furniture and more! Even if you're not close to where the shop is in Wisconsin, good news... I ship nationwide, (USA) daily! Check out the link here and let's get your DIY on!
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Welcome to Simple Decorating Tips! I'm Liz, the author, and I'm so glad you're here! My goal is to encourage you with DIY tips, techniques and tutorials so you feel empowered to join in the fun! Along with this DIY blog, I have a DIY shop, Frame and Frills!
Frame and Frills is in Wisconsin. I stock amazing DIY products! Fusion Mineral Paints, ReDesign Transfers, Decoupage, Waxes, loads of DIY Goodies, re-done Furniture and more! Even if you're not close to where the shop is in Wisconsin, good news... I ship nationwide, (USA) daily! Check out the link here and let's get your DIY on!


Disclosure Policy: According to FTC guidelines, I want you to be aware that some of the content of this blog may be a source of income and therefore may be used to promote products, services, or other businesses. I will only choose to promote products/services/businesses that I feel will be beneficial to my readers. While I hope to generate a small profit for my time and effort to create this blog, I hold myself to the highest standard of integrity. I appreciate my readers, and make it my goal to deliver quality, honest material on this blog through each post. Thanks for reading along, Liz

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Sharing is great! Please feel free to share this blog with your friends, as well as on Facebook and Pinterest and Flipboard and Houzz and YouTube the more the merrier! I appreciate you stopping by. But please remember that all photos, images, text and content are owned by SimpleDecoratingTips.com. So anything you share, please be sure it always links back to my original post it came from. Please do not remove watermarks, crop or edit anything without written permission from me first.

Disclosure Policy: According to the FTC guidelines, I want you to be aware that this blog is a source of income and may occasionally incorporate endorsements or testimonials and shopping links. It is important to me to disclose this to you. The content of this blog is a source of income and therefore may be used to promote products, services, or other businesses. I will only choose to promote products/services/businesses that I feel will be beneficial to my readers. Products provided to me by my advertising partners for my review are given to me free of charge with no cost to myself. This does not ensure a positive review of the product in any way. While I hope to generate a small profit for my time and effort to create this blog, I hold myself to the highest standard of integrity. I appreciate my readers, and always make it my goal to deliver quality, honest material on this blog through each post. Thanks for reading along, Liz

Disclosure Policy According to Federal Trade Commission guidelines, I want you to be aware that this blog is a source of income and may occasionally incorporate endorsements or testimonials. It is important to me to disclose this to you. The content of this blog is a source of income and therefore may be used to promote products, services, or other businesses. I will only choose to promote products/services/businesses that I feel will be beneficial to my readers. Products provided to me by my advertising partners for my review are given to me free of charge with no cost to myself. This does not ensure a positive review of the product in any way. My truthful opinion will be what I state, no matter if I'm getting paid or not. Accuracy and truth are the priority for me on this blog's information, no matter if it's about a product or anything else. Not every product or service or store etc. may be mentioned in each and every post as an affiliate. While I hope to generate a small profit for my time and effort to create this blog, I hold myself to the highest standard of integrity. I appreciate my readers, and always make it my goal to deliver quality, honest material on this blog through each post.

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