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The front of our house
Stouffville, Ontario
November 2004 - present

This is what our house looks like
when you drive up the driveway.

I repainted the front door in the summer of 2006 to a
gorgeous purple. It's hard to really get the full effect of it
from a photo. You'll have to come and visit and see it
in real life. We absolutely love it.

I added two Japanese maples for height and colour.
More blue junipers for height between the windows
and at the corner of the house.
Some Purple Palace Coral Bells for more colour and
Red twig Variegated Dogwood for colour contrast
in both summer and winter.
We put in an irrigation system with a timer (even in the
planters near the door) and tons of mulch.

Here you can see the variation in height and colour better.
The theme is blue and burgandy with pink annuals.

Here is the front garden in the spring, blooming with
purple and orange tulips and white daffodils.
May 2007.

Close-up of the Bloodgood Japanese Maple.

Winter view of the garden.
January 2007.

This side has a weeping Japanese Maple,
creeping juniper near the rocks,
Johnny-jump-ups and pansies.

A close-up of a combination of globe cedar,
blue juniper and purple coral bells.
August 2006.

This is the area around the Japanese maple in spring.
May 2007.

'Orange Emperor' and 'Purple Prince' tulips
and 'Salome' Daffodils.
2007

The tulips up close.
May 2007

A close-up of the 'Salome' daffodils. A picture
can't do them justice. They're my favourite kind of daffodil.

When driving up our driveway towards our house, there
are large pine trees on both sides of the driveway. I
love them. I have spent many hard hours "cleaning them
up" - pruning, mulching. Summer 2006.

These are the gorgeous mature pines on either side
of our driveway if you are looking from the house
towards the road. These trees provide a beautiful view
from the windows inside the house. I find them very calming.

The pine trees on the right in the previous picture
used to have a very large poplar tree growing
in the middle of them. We had the tree
professionally removed and then I trimmed the
bottom branches with a hand saw and pruned
the tree to reshape it (you can see that the bottom
left branches stick out far trying to reach sunlight
from under the large poplar). Then I created a nice
large mulch bed under them to make it look more
manicured and landscaped rather than just wild
trees growing on the property.

Looking down our driveway in winter.
Eventually those tall poplars on the right will be removed.
Heavy wind, snow or ice brings down huge limbs onto
our driveway - it's a safety hazard.
January 2007

This is what the driveway looked like before we moved in.
We had two large poplar trees removed from the right
and all the trees on the left halfway up the driveway.
And I trimmed and pruned the pine trees on the far left.

The pine trees next to our driveway dusted with snow.
January 2007

This is a close-up of the three pines next to the garage.
I may eventually underplant it with lily-of-the-valley and hostas. But I'm enjoying it simple and uncluttered right now.
Summer 2006.

When we first moved in, they were in terrible shape.
Their branches went down to the ground but had
been damaged in many places and some were even
partly stuck in the gravel from when they made the driveway.
There was also a deep rut that had become a swamp
at the base of each tree. I trimmed the trees to give
them a beautiful shape and filled in the hole and mulched the area. I cut off all the branches with a hand saw. It's amazing
what kind of transformation a gardeners hand can create.
April 2004.

We have planted 5 blue spruce on either side of our driveway along the front of our property (which faces a major street).
Hopefully, in 20 years it will provide good privacy and views.
In front of the spruce, we have planted a row of raspberry bushes. We plan to plant another row of raspberry,
two rows of blueberry and a couple of rows of strawberry.
It's our berry patch.

This is a view of our front yard when standing near the road.
There is also a similar yard on the other side of the driveway.
This is where we fly kites.

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