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Redesigning the front garden

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  • HouseFinchHouseFinch Posts: 328
    Nicotiana sprouting up amongst the clover.
    Sunflowers both large and small today.
  • We now have a functioning water spout at the front of the house! B) No, I'm not referring to the following photo! The clover has grown tall.I was hoping it would reseed itself, but the only seed heads I see are dandelion.
    Our lawn ornament is trimming the grass for me. Maybe he will be promoted to lawnmower. He stuck his nose through the back fence and the neighbors dog tried to remove it. That was a week ago. Just took him into the vet this morning to have the stitches redone. Not a lot of fun hanging around the garden today. I am a bit miffed about it. OH is constructing aluminum panels to fit over the chain link. We won't see them because of the back border planting for a privacy screen. It is solely for safety.
    Commenced work clearing the raspberry bed-it's going to be needed to place the paving stones temporarily while the driveway is done. I completely dug it out and moved the soil to the side closest to the house. Put rocks down the center and replanted everything to the right.


    It looks a bit horrible at the moment in the front flower beds, but I figured there had to be accurate representation for the before photos. I moved the iris that was planted on the right into the beds directly in front of the house. It hadn't bloomed this spring, but it was an early spring transplant. I was told it is a purple bearded iris.
    Some Rudbeckia seedlings were taking over the zen garden, so I evenly distributed them in the front beds among the iris and white chrysanthemum.
    In the above flower bed there is/will be:
    • Goldenrod planted on the right - late summer to early fall bloom time
    • Martha Washington's Plume (a little to the left of the Goldenrod) - mid to late summer bloom time
    • Goat's Beard (Aruncus dioicus) - Early-mid summer bloom time
    • Purple Echinacea  - Summer to fall
    • White Echinacea (Pow Wow)  - Summer to fall
    • white snap dragons  - late spring to fall
    • scabiosa (purple variety)  - late spring to fall
    • white chrysanthemum - fall
    • Rudbeckia on the left sprouted despite lack of watering - Summer to fall
    • Milkweed ~ Let there be butterflies! - Summer
    There are also some daffodil bulbs stashed away in there somewhere...
  • chickychicky Posts: 10,410
    Lots of changes - you have a lot of energy.  Love your planting list - something for all seasons ☀️🌦❄️🌤

    Sorry to hear about woofer’s nose - very upsetting for you all ☹️
  • You are doing an amazing job. Love seeing your updates  :)
  • Thank you @chicky and thank you @Ericaheather :)
  • Managed to harvest the pumpkins before the slugs moved in on them. Hopefully they make it until hallowe'en.
    We are still in the process of preparing for the driveway work. Flagstones are waiting in the front flower bed.
    Some changes to plans for the front:
    • The raspberries are going in the backyard. 
    • The front space currently occupied by white micro-clover will be seeded with red clover and both wild flower seeds and plug-plants.
    • The flat rock pathway will be inset in crushed gravel and edged with rocks.
    • An arbor will be set up in lieu of a front gate. Red honeysuckle will climb up over it.
    After research and knowledge gleaned from this forum, it is clear that some wildflowers do best as plugs. To increase the odds of successful germination, I am going to give it a go.
    The excess soil from the pumpkins is being moved into a new bed around the tree. I have planted some alliums into it, and will deliberate over companions for them throughout winter.
    These are the varieties I have collected for the wildflower garden.

    For us, wildflowers seem like the way to go. We only use our front garden to pass through on our way to other places-excluding the mandatory snowman time in winter.
    It seems like the right choice.
  • chickychicky Posts: 10,410
    That’s some pumpkin fest 🎃 🎃🎃🎃

    Wildflower plans sound brilliant ...be sure to keep us updated once ⛄️⛄️⛄️ season is over
  • @chicky Will do!
  • HouseFinchHouseFinch Posts: 328
    @chicky Front is slow to grow. There are a lot of seed only additions this year. We are shut ins these days, so only trips for essentials. Business is also slowed, so no greenhouse grown perennials this year. (A shame because the slugs and snails are decimating my rudbeckias). We used what resources we had scattered around the property to fill in the gravel and rock edged pathways. It could use a bit more when times permit.
    Set up a little bean pole teepee for the kids and later build some steps up to a rock couch. They love it.

    There is a red honeysuckle planted on either side of the entrance. Someday we will put an arch or wooden trellis in for it to climb. OH is planning on tackling the fence soon. He wants me to set up a 'we are feeding the bees' sign. We live in a neighbourhood full of the American style lawns. We feel people find it hard to understand what we are doing, other than seeding the area with dandelions ;) That said there are few dandelions in the front as the taproot proved very tasty with roast chicken, or stewed beef.

    I sowed some barley early on, and it looks like un-mowed grass at the moment, making the bare areas with wildflowers yet to pop up appear somewhat neglected and forlorn. The front edge is well seeded with a variety of sunflowers; Italian white, red queen, and the red brown ones from last year (which have also seeded well around the front on their own). There is Amaranth (Love lies bleeding) behind the sunflowers.

    Next week will probably look a bit better, as the purple irises are yet to open.

    The short yellow irises have been and are now fading out. They paired well with the deep purple tulips and purple sensation alliums. The white frosted tipped tulips were striking in contrast. Some new colours of columbine are appearing that I don't recall noticing last year. I think they had only just started from escaped seed (parent plants must have been relocated by the previous owner).

    Hope you enjoyed the update and that you and yours are in good health!
    I will post more as the flowers emerge/fill in.
  • chickychicky Posts: 10,410
    Its all coming together - thanks for the update, I did enjoy it 😀.  I hope the wildflowers do their stuff - it will be nice if you can convince your neighbours that “American style” is not the only way 👍🏻
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