Our home is the second house on the left of the street after turning onto our street. The side you can see is very prominent as there is a large space between our home and the next door neighbors. And by large, it’s not that big, but large by suburban standards! The point is that you can see the entire side of our home as you come onto our street. I have been wanting to add some trees to break up the look and finally paid a landscaping company to do it this summer! Here are the details of adding juniper trees to the side of the house and how to bury a sump pump.
Side Yard Before
When we moved into this house 11 years ago, we created this landscape bed on the side of the house. I had planted butterfly bush and hydrangeas. These plants were fine, but they were getting overgrown, they didn’t provide the height I really wanted, and they didn’t look good in the winter. So…I ripped them all out to start fresh. This was backbreaking work, but I enjoy doing much of the yard work myself! This is the side yard after a clean slate. As you can see, this garage wall really needed something to give it some depth and color. You can also see the black tubing that we used to run the sump pump water away from both the house and the yard. More below on moving this.
Deciding What to Plant
My biggest piece of advice is to take photos and notes of landscaping you love when you’re out driving or walking around. I knew I wanted a row of trees here. I wasn’t sure exactly what kind, but trees for sure. Trees are evergreen and look great in the winter. They would be tall and break up this large white wall. Evergreen trees add texture and color and feels layered with the natural rock. This would also be low/no maintenance!
I contacted a local landscaping company who came to assess the area and I gave him my thoughts. He suggested a certain type of tree that would fit in the space. We really didn’t want to have to extend the bed any further to incur more cost. After discussing burying the sump pump, adding trees, and some bushes around the air conditioner, we got started.
Hetzii Juniper Trees
We ultimately went with four Hetzii Juniper Trees in the space. These will grow to five feet wide and up to fifteen feet tall. To start, they planted trees that were around six feet tall and two feet wide, so these should double in size. Working with a landscape company ensures that these are under warranty for a year from the time they are planted. We planted in July, so this will give us a fall, winter, and spring to make sure they survive! These juniper trees aren’t perfect and I love the bit of whimsy and texture they provide in the space.
Rock Instead of Mulch around the Juniper Trees
To ensure this area was truly low/no maintenance, we added two ton of rock to our landscaping beds this summer. It was dropped off on our driveway and I moved it all myself over the course of a week. It was maybe the hardest manual work I’ve ever done! The large rocks around the border were put in right after we moved in, after we created the bed. The smaller rocks were added this summer. Loving the addition of more rock! We still have mulch in several areas, but the rock helps break it up. This smaller rock is 2 inch Colorado River Rock.
Burying the Sump Pump
Before we could an any new landscaping with this area, we had to address the sump pump. Our sump pump pushes water our near our air conditioner. We didn’t want it going to the yard to make it soggy, so we added some tubing to make it go in the landscaping bed. Everything was always soggy and gross. We had the landscape company quote burying the sump pump and it was worth EVERY PENNY!! Talk about wishing we had done this when we moved in!
The landscapers were actually able to bury the line right along the rock border of the landscaping bed. It now shoots out further down the yard and into a rock bed where it has more room to disperse. They were able to get this done the same day they planted the trees.
The sump pump now looks like this against the house. I do want to say that when we were talking about rerouting this, the professionals told me that moving the water to come out at the sidewalk or the street is very frowned upon and shouldn’t be done. This results in standing water along sidewalks and in the roadway, which attracts bugs and smells and it’s unsightly! Make sure you do this part the right way!
Moving Sprinkler Heads
After we dealt with the sump pump situation, we had to make sure the right amount of water from the sprinklers was hitting the trees. We didn’t want them to be getting hit directly or be saturated. The landscape company was also able to move two sprinkler heads to ensure the new trees were getting proper water. For example, the black sprinkler head you can see here used to be behind one of the trees, closer to the house. They moved it out so it wasn’t directly hitting one of the trees.
This side yard is so much better, right?! I’m most excited that I don’t have to cut anything back and this part of the yard will still look pretty in the wintertime. Can’t you just imagine these Juniper trees with freshly fallen snow on them?! I also love that they sort of hide anything against the house that can’t be moved.
I hope this was helpful if you are thinking about adding something to your side yard. Adding juniper trees and burying the sump pump made a huge difference for us! This was no sponsored in any way, but if you are local to the KC area, this is who we used. XO
