We have really been working hard on our front flowerbeds the past few weeks.
Thanks so much to VaLynn from VW Garden! She's another East-side gardener like me, and offered to share some plants with me.
Well, I was like a kid in a candy shop!
It was such fun to talk plants and gardens with another like-minded person for most of an afternoon! And I could hardly believe the bounty she loaded me up with!
It was the most fun I've had in ages. :)
I can't believe I didn't get one single picture with her, or of the plants.
[sigh] And I call myself a garden blogger!
Next time. For sure.
My husband, meanwhile, got the low wall closest to the road finished, as well as filling it and the new top bed with dirt and rototilling everything.
I also bought several shrubs to fill in the space with, as well.
Cue the planting marathon!
Top Bed, Before:
Top Bed, After:
I'll do a separate post detailing the shrubs and what plants went where.
Lower Terrace, Driveway Side
Before:
Lower Terrace, After:
Again, the details of what I planted will be the next post!
Front Landscaping
Terraces Filled in!
Left-side corner
The plank terraces, trees, and corn you see in the background all belong to our awesome next-door neighbors.
Middle
Right-side
Thoughts and Plans:
My idea here overall was to have most of the color and blooming perennials in the middle terrace, with the top and bottom being more evergreen, non-competing, background-type plants.
The top is all shrubs: taller-growing varieties that will help bridge the gap between the flat ground and our very tall house, and also give us some privacy in the basement.
(The window in these pictures is our basement window. I should include a shot of the whole house sometime, so you can see what I mean by the height difference. It's significant.)
I may add a few crocuses to this bed, or I may just leave it as is.
The bottom is a mix of shrubs and perennials. I chose varieties that should get almost to the top of the wall behind them, but not cover it completely. I used a lot of repetition in this terrace, to avoid competing with the busyness up above, so I've got a couple of sections of shrubs, with similar plantings between them.
We keep waffling between putting in a sidewalk in the very front vs. planting grass.
My husband made sure the wall left room for either.
Now I just have to keep everything alive through this heat wave!
Nearly everything I planted should do fine without much water, once established.
Here's hoping our water bill isn't sky-high!
Wow, you two really have been busy! Those terraces are a big project to build and to fill. It's looking really good and will look even better next year. Good thing you don't live in California or your water would be sky high, but it probably won't be so bad here. We endure long snowy winters so we have enough water for the summer :-)
ReplyDeleteYes, there has to be a reason for these winters, doesn't there? :) I'm excited to everything grow and continue to fill in the space.
DeleteKudos to you... that's a lot of hard work! It looks great and every year it will just get better.
ReplyDeleteThanks for visiting, Carolyn! My husband does all the hard work, stacking blocks. Planning and planting is the fun part for me!
DeleteI can't get over how much work you and your husband did. I love the tiered planting areas - great solution for a slope. I wish I had done that years ago. Of course, now it's too late! It will be so much fun to see how things fill in.
ReplyDeleteWhen we first came here, the slope was completely covered in juniper and cottoneaster, neither of which I am very fond of. At all. So we tore it all out, but then we had to do something with the bare hill. This has been a lot of work, but it's great seeing it start to come together!
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