Changes and DIY landscape

I know there's a big gap in my blog because I haven't been able to write anything for a couple of months. For those who would like to know, I'm back working (yey!), found a perfect job that suits me and my lifestyle but (just like any job) I needed to adjust so I've been taking some time off of blogging and just wrote in my journal instead. But, I really missed sharing the many things that made me smile, laugh and cry so I just want to write as many posts as I can this week and then I'll just set the proper time stamps of the posts once I get a long break from my hectic schedule. Either way, it's the thought that counts right (?) ^_^ . I also want to share that even if I'm back working again, it didn't stop me from experiencing life and  enjoying the fruits of my labor. ^_^
One of the home projects that my husband and I focused on in the month of June (before the heavy rainy season started) is to improve the small patch of land in front our home. Landscapers in the Philippines costs about PHP5000 and up (depends on the plants and the size of the area), since we only needed to have a small area planted, my husband and I gambled to personally take on this small project, and in the end, learned and realized that doing it ourselves really has their own rewards.

finally, a home for the horsetail that my mother -in-law gave us as a gift.

Learning#1:  Pick plants that we liked and needed.

One of the things that we really enjoyed doing during this process is we get to select the plants that we wanted and needed. I wanted plants that are easy to maintain, have some colors that will attract good chi (my mother is really superstitious so we have a lot of feng-shui rules considered when we designed our home, this includes the front garden ^_^) and since we are in a tropical country, we needed plants that naturally repels insects particularly mosquitoes. 

We settled with perennial plants, these are plants that are not seasonal and will not wilt easily, they only need a couple of pruning every now and then and will go mostly with any kind of soil. We happen to love the bottle-bushes, they cost around PHP70 (small) and PHP150 for midsize, it emits a wonderful scent when their leaves are crushed that repels mosquitoes, we planted a lot of those near the windows and door. And, if put in between two-strong colored plants, such as in the picture below (dark green and red) it really softens the look.

left-Mayana plant, middle-Bottle bush, right-purple sage

Learning#2: Don't be afraid to play with colors and try different varieties of plants

Let me tell you a story: most of the houses in our village shares the same house color as ours - rose pink (it's a standard color and we can't change it), and, one day, one of the neighbors planted yellow mums in their front garden and soon enough, almost everyone in our street had planted yellow mums and yellow daffodils in front of their houses. It looks great at first (especially in the summer), but as time passes, it became a little bit overwhelming to look at and then it just ended up being boring since everybody planted the same plants in front of their houses. Don't get me wrong, I totally respect what people want to plant in their own property but I just want to air out that we shouldn't be afraid to be different and to try other plants other than what others have discovered. If it doesn't go well with the design  that you're aiming for, you can always buy a nice colorful pot and plant it there. Pretty sure, a collection of different potted plants will eventually contribute to your garden and truly make it more unique.

For our front garden, we discovered this wonderful plant called Mayana with different varieties and different colors, it is a good filler since it's leaves are really bushy and the red ones even produce stalks with purple flowers in them. And, unlike yellow which tries to hide the "pink-ness" of our house, the red Mayana actually complement the rosy pink color of our home and made it pop more.

lovely Mayanas

Learning#3: Mind those height and prune those plants

Every home always have those added architectural features that make it more appealing to the eye. When planting near the windows or doors, we have to make sure that our plants does not hide-away these features. So if putting plants, you must always ask yourself how high should these plants be? what shape is good for it? and how often do I need to prune them? 

We placed these beautiful twirled Singapore hollies to frame the door, with just the right height and the pots in their right sizes, it worked perfectly and gave our door that little humpf that we needed. ^_^

For the bushes near the window, we planted a couple of bottle bushes, another variety of mayana (this time with light green and light red leaves) and purple sage near the window, it's a little bit short now, but we'll let it grow so that it will be almost up to the window height but below the yellow lines. By the way, when planting plants beside each other, make sure that there is enough safe in between so that they will not hinder each other from growing.

On the left side, we planted a little cedar tree in the farthest corner, some bottle bushes again (to ward off those pesky mosquitoes) and purple sage again

We kept the very first plant we bought as a couple - a buttercup tree, we put it in a big terracotta pot but it's not really growing how we wanted so our plan now is to move it in the side patio and let it crawl in the trellis. I'll update you on that. Decorating the side patio will be another project that I'm looking forward too. ^_^

Buttercup tree on pot

We also planted a Locaria tree outside which we hope will grow perfectly. By the way, we got blue grass for the front yard instead of bermuda, blue grass is the same grass we can find in golf courses. ^_^

Here's the picture of the front garden last November when we had the gate done. 

And here's the picture of it now. So far so good. ^_^