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Finished up our latest flower bed. We’ve been wanting to do something with this ac unit on the side of house for awhile now and we can now look back and appreciate it! See how our gorgeous yard transformation came about.
Air conditioners are a vital part of a home (especially if you’ve been outside in the heat, landscaping!) but they’re not exactly the prettiest thing you ever laid eyes on. Check out how easy it was to simply: add rocks around AC unit along with some plants we chose; that, as a result, gave it a beautiful landscaping boost and was so much prettier on the eyes!
We’ve been making some landscaping and outdoor yard updates and had a bunch of leftover black lava rocks (this is the kind we used) laying around, or more like taking over our garage space. I mean, look at all that lava rock! Hubby wanted his garage back a.s.a.p.! So for today, I get to show you the grand finales (I live for a good before and after picture) since we’ve finally completed our landscaping around air conditioner! I’m almost as excited about this transformation as I was after we tackled and revealed our flower bed in front of house.
Getting Started On Flower Bed:
Landscaping around AC Unit
The way our house is positioned you can see our side yard that has the air conditioning unit as your view coming down the road and down our street. It’s the first thing you see before you even get to our home. This is why it deserves a screaming-for-attention curb appeal boost on our part. It didn’t hit me until after we began edging and completing the border of our garden to take an initial before photo.
We went with a narrow shape bed that flows along the side of the house and we rounded out the landscape around ac unit.
Choosing & Planting Flowers
Before adding any garden lava rock, we planted the flowers that we bought from our local gardening center. Tip: You’ll want to make sure to give the plants plenty of space between each other (check the plant specs to see any recommendations for the width of maturity size and also steer clear placing your plants near air conditioning units too close. We planted two flowers seemingly close, one of each side of the air conditioner, but made sure they stay short and don’t get any height to where they interfere with the working efficiency of the AC. These petite flowers are great too because if we by chance needed a technician to service our unit he could kindly step over these little guys with no issues. Keep those couple things in mind when shopping for flowers. Also this article of what to plant near ac unit (and how far) has some great recommendations and will give you an idea of what flowers to consider and ones to avoid as well. For some of our other plants we chose some height. I am hopeful as the plants grow taller, looking from the side, this will potentially hide some of the unit and give me the full results of that curb appeal boost I’m looking for.
Add Rocks around AC Unit
Just by adding the lava rock landscaping alone delivers instant results! The rock not only makes for a beautiful flower bed but also serves a helpful purpose. This will help prevent weeds from growing underneath and blocking any airflow. I think my husband loves it because he won’t have to weed eat under there! Since we do have more black lava rock leftover after this time around, we have some plans for more lava rocks landscaping on the other side of the house (along our garage) which doesn’t look so great and needs a little help.
>>UPDATE: The other side of our lava rock landscaping is done! >>Come check it out & See how it looks!!!<<
What Plants did we go With?
Here are the flowers we decided on by name. We went with ones that will come back next year {perennials}. I always tell myself buying annuals are a waste of money. Right now they need some tlc but they’ll be a lot prettier when they all bloom. We will have a variety of purples, yellows and pinks!
Black Eyed Susans
Find out how to best care for Black Eyed Susan’s here.
**UPDATE: THIS IS MORE RECENT PICTURES OF THE BLACK EYED SUSANS AFTER THEY BLOOMED!**
The bright yellow looks gorgeous with the black lava rock!
Balloon Flowers
These are the petite flowers that I mentioned above that were planted on each side closest to the air conditioner.
Are these Balloon flowers right for you’re garden? Read More here.
**UPDATE: THIS IS RECENT PICTURES OF THE BALLOON FLOWERS AFTER THEY BLOOMED!**
They’re So Pretty!
Russian Sage
The Russian Sage gets to be a tall plant. This one will help disguise the air conditioner.
Will Russian Sage thrive in your garden? Find more details here.
**UPDATE: THIS IS RECENT PICTURES OF THE RUSSIAN SAGE AFTER THEY BLOOMED!**
I love the soft lavender color of all the blooms and can’t wait for it to get some height in time.
Doesn’t it look so much better?!!! Do you have any plans of adding rocks around AC Unit?
Don’t miss our other similar landscaping posts:
Garden Retaining Wall
Landscaping Ideas For The Front Of House
Retaining Wall DIY
IF YOU LOVE THIS DON’T FORGET TO SAVE THESE FLOWER BED IDEAS TO YOUR FAVORITE PINTEREST BOARD SO YOU CAN COME BACK TO IT LATER!
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