Finishing the Tree House Front Yard Project… Finally!

We’re sharing the final details and plans of our nearly year-long front yard landscaping project at our Michigan Tree House.

Last summer, a quick project to trim a few limbs and remove some vines from a massive pine tree in the front yard of our Michigan Tree House spiraled out of control. What started as a small project to keep a tree healthy resulted in the removal of a tangled thicket of greenery that needed to be torn out and replaced. That mishap motivated us to finally tackle the front yard landscaping in the way we’d always dreamed of. The planning started last August, we broke ground at the end of November, and we hope to complete it this weekend. Phew!

The Design

The initial design from our insanely talented landscape design team at Rootbound involved a planted berm between the properties, a gas fire pit, a natural stone retaining wall, and nearly 200 new plants. It was spectacular, but a bit outside of our scope and budget. We worked with the Rootbound team to tighten up the plan, scale things back a bit and find a happy medium. What we landed on is a fantastic design that checks all of our boxes including a gas fire pit (already installed), a gravel path to the backyard, and pollinator-friendly native plants with hits of bright color.

The initial wave of construction happened last fall into early winter and we’ve already gotten a ton of use out of the space. The convenience of the gas fire pit within eyesight of the swing increases the usability of the front yard in a huge way!

The Plan

This weekend, we’ll spend a few days at Tree house armed with a plan, a rented auger, and a lot of muscle. We’ll plant 140 plants and spread 12 cubic yards of hardwood mulch. By Sunday afternoon, our front yard will look very different than it does today and we’ll likely be very sore! Below is a list of all of the plants for the project. The Arborvitae, Nannyberry, Dogwood and Rhododendron were planted last fall, and the rest will go in over the next few days. We cannot wait to see all of these stunners in bloom!

Follow Along!

This weekend is going to be very hectic, but (hopefully) very fun! Here’s a rough idea of how things should shake out.

• Thursday afternoon: Plants are delivered and staged by Rootbound
• Friday: Mulch delivery and preliminary work
• Saturday: Plant all of the plants, spread as much mulch as possible
• Sunday: Finish remaining planting/mulch, adjust landscape lighting, finishing touches

We’ve certainly got our hands full, but we’re confident that we can get it all done. We’ll be sharing our progress on our IG stories all weekend, so we hope you’ll join us. We’ll need all of the encouragement we can get!