The front yard is slowly coming along. The weather has been more or less wonderful since the beginning of March. We've had lots of warm, beautiful days — perfect for working outside.
The west-side bed has mostly pinks and dark foliaged plants, though, I added orange violas in winter when most everything had gone out of bloom. Our house faces northwest with a few trees in my neighbor's yard partly blocking the afternoon sun so I've spent the past few months trying to learn how much sun the two front areas receive... it's rather patchy.
A little section of the east-side bed sticks out to receive more sun so I immediately planted my favorite flower — poppies — in that spot.
They bloomed a bit in fall, quietly withstood our harsh winter and were lovely the past two months. We can see them from inside our bedroom window and they still have new buds.
In the same bed is an overgrown holly which I trimmed up to remove a bunch of dead wood and previously butchered branches. It's still pretty much a meatball shape and out of scale, but since we are renters, I am hesitant to chop it down just yet.
Attempting to soften the corner and lower branches, I planted liriope (L. muscari varigata/gigantea) underneath.
Though I certainly could've done a more thorough prep, the sunny front yard border has been cleaned up to the extent that I've been forging ahead with new plantings.
The oldest and therefore largest is Centaurea cineraria 'Colchester White,' which I stuffed into a bare spot last fall before ever removing any weeds. I like how the silver leaves look with the trunks of the Rose of Sharon (Hibiscus syriacus).
Wave Hill has a large collection of salvias and I grew very fond of them while working there. Beautiful blue Salvia farinacea 'Henry Duelberg' was discovered by Greg Grant in a Texas cemetary thriving without special care.
In the forefront of this photo is another blue mealy cup sage. Salvia farinacea 'Victoria' is a dwarf form staying under twelve inches. It's sold as a bedding annual, but it returned where I planted it in my mothers garden last spring. You can also see blue fescue and love in a mist (Nigella damescena).
Salvia. longispicata x farinacea 'Mystic Spires Blue' crosses another favorite salvia of mine from Wave Hill, 'Indigo Spires' with a dwarf form to make a shorter, sturdier plant with a gorgeous deep blue flower.
Lamb's ear (Stachys byzantia 'Helen Von Stein') is planted on the edge of the bed anticipating that it will spread and widen the border. More to come!
The flowers are lovely. It seems like a nice day out there... a perfect time to get some work done outside, don't you think? Things are really looking good in your lawn. Keep at it!
Posted by: Luigi Keaty | September 19, 2011 at 08:25 AM