At the start of the spring, Mr. Handyverger and I decided that we were very tired of the dated, overgrown shrubs that surrounded our house. Here are some views of the front porch that's near the front entrance to the house.
Holy bushes, Batman! These yew were way overgrown. This is what you used to pass after walking up the steps from the driveway and around to the front door.
And when you rounded the corner to the house, a giant, Christmas-tree shaped yew blocked all sun and joy from the right side of the porch.
And this was the view off of the porch. Youch.
And now?
An amazing improvement, isn't it?
I'm loving the cheerful pops of yellow, red and turquoise. Of course I've added some more plants to the porch. I'll share those pictures soon.
To give you an idea of how much of the front yard our bushes took up, check out the artemesia in the picture below. The bushes very nearly overgrew it.
She's the largest artemisia in the new garden - the one right in front of the rock. The one that's just a little left of center. Everything to the left of that was huge yew bushes!
That's the very same artemisia, not moved an inch, with lots of room to breathe!
This is what used to grow in that triangular area between the walkways. Lots of wildflowers gone, well, wild!
Now, some simple, colorful plantings: Coralbells 'Caramel,' a hosta (might be 'Golden Prayers'), some Silver Mound artemesia (added to the one I've had growing there for five years), some coleus and celosia.
There's Walker's Low catmint in there, as well as another coralbell 'Huckaberry.'
And this oregano patch that's taking over the world?
It's like something out of Little Shop of Horrors. Feed me, Seymour!
It's a neatly manicured oregano plant once again.
Unfortunately, we lost the catnip that was growing next to it to an aphid infestation. I'm terribly sad! (And for reference, the silver mound artemisia that's just to the left of center in this picture? That's the very same one that was encroached upon by bushes I showed you above.
Some quickies of some of the plants we used...
My beautiful, original Silver Mound artemisia. I have babied this plant for five years, and at long last she has room to grow.
Another view of the coralbells (Heuchera 'Huckaberry')
A nice shot of the green foliage veined in purple. Stunning! I love that the green has a slight silver undertone. It complements the artemisia nicely.
Itty bitty dwarf mugo pine! This is planted at the very tip of the triangle between our walkways. He's so cute!
Celosia, AKA Cockscomb. Insert juvenile tittering.
Coleus, Stained Glassworks 'Copper.' Fiery!
So, that's the transformation of the front porch garden! We had a fantastic landscaper helping us. We worked together to come up with plants that were both low maintenance and that we loved. He really managed to bring my vision to life, and since then, I've tucked a few more little plants in to fill things out, mostly annuals.
Next up? The newly created garden for my beloved angel-kitty Pippin.
Cheers!
