A look around the front garden

I look at the planting beds in my front yard more than any others. My office window faces the front, I walk out the front door several times a day, and I see it from the street when arriving home.


I'm pretty happy with how it's looking right now (with a few exceptions) so I thought I better share it before something crazy happens, like a hailstorm, deer stampede, or who knows what else.



***

I'm not sure how much I should say about the photos, so I'll just label the views -- if you have questions about specific plants, please ask in the comments!

B: The view from my office window

C: Standing on the porch

D: A step or two off the porch

E: Same place but looking to the left and back a bit

F: End of the walkway looking back at the porch

G: Standing on the driveway looking at the border bed

H: On neighbor's driveway looking at the back of that same bed

I: On the street near the end of the walkway

J: On the sidewalk standing pretty much in the center of the previous photo

K: Turning to the left -- the shady bed under the maple

L: Almost at the edge of my yard, looking at the shady bed

M: Moving down the property line you see the side garden

N: moving back a bit toward the porch, looking at the side garden

O: Looking at the corner plantings

P: turning slightly to the right

Q: Turning all the way around, where the walkway meets the street

R: turning back to the porch

S: Another angle of the porch, driveway bed in the background

T: Back on the porch, more of the walkway

U: Another view of the bed next to the porch

That covers about 80% of the front -- I forgot about the bed that's visible at the left side of photo H, where my Alocasia are. Another time.

Any questions? Hope you enjoyed it!

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Chickadee Gardens  – (August 7, 2015 at 9:01 AM)  

Heya Alan, no questions but looking great! I love the contrasting foliage colors, especially in photos G and H. Looks like a lush garden paradise!

Mark and Gaz  – (August 7, 2015 at 9:31 AM)  

You've done a fantastic job with the planting Alan, so lush and light at the same time. And rather makes your property look very inviting :)

Gerhard Bock (Succulents and More)  – (August 7, 2015 at 10:56 AM)  

I'm going to use the "l" word as well: LUSH. I'm so used to shades of brown, all this green is make me dizzy :-)

Every vignette is beautiful.

Alan  – (August 7, 2015 at 2:46 PM)  

Tamara: G and H show my purplest bed: my biggest purple plant (castor bean), my darkest purple plant ('Vertigo' grass), and my most prolific purple plant (Perilla). :)

Mark/Gaz: thank you, especially coming from you who know how to do lush so well!

Gerhard: Thanks! You always say that about brown, but your garden has quite a bit of green too -- maybe everything else around it is brown?

Anonymous –   – (August 8, 2015 at 9:42 AM)  

Very nice. Love the hot, hazy humid glow of the photos! My landscaping in the immediate front of our house is VERY minimal, just a few juniper bushes and a few evergreen pine something-or-anothers and then some ornamental grasses. Eventually I would like something more lush/complex, but I always tend to just focus on the "Spy Garden" part of the yard! One of these days, we will need to come down and meet you and tour your garden in person and maybe trade some plants!

chavliness  – (August 8, 2015 at 11:17 AM)  

Beautiful. Are the fountain grasses hardy in your area?
What's the tropical 'tree' in picture R?

danger garden  – (August 8, 2015 at 12:49 PM)  

I loved this post, nice to see an overall glance around your garden. That "L" word that the others have used certainly does apply. And I enjoy seeing that you've worked in so many dark leaved plants. Speaking of...what is the tall dark leaved beauty in photo C?

outlawgardener  – (August 9, 2015 at 4:52 PM)  

It's looking good Alan! So lush and green, lots of interesting plants, great foliage contrasts, and a harmonious whole! Ain't summer grand?

Denise  – (August 9, 2015 at 10:23 PM)  

Amazing how everything is still in proportion, no floppers, and here it is August. Your plantsmanship is tops! I've never been able to make perilla look like that and you've got me wanting to try again.

Alan  – (August 10, 2015 at 6:38 AM)  

spygarden: The "Spy Garden" is plenty to focus on -- planning on expanding it again next year? Would love to have you visit!

chavliness: The dark-leaved grasses are not hardy, but not too difficult to overwinter as I've posted about before. The tree in R is my Pachypodium lamerei.

Loree: Thanks! Believe it or not, the purple in C is again perilla. I'm growing a bunch of it in almost every bed -- no individual plants, it's a clump in every place.

Peter: thank you! I feel like it's really come together this year.

Denise: I appreciate the compliments! The trick with perilla seems to be to grow it en masse. Individual plants are too spindly, so grow 6 or more in the space of a single "good" plant.

Rock rose  – (August 10, 2015 at 12:28 PM)  

I would be happy too to see so much green in summer. Have you had much rain to keep it looking so lovely. So the grass is 'vertigo'. Is that a fountain grass. I think I saw one in Pam Penick's garden this weekend but she couldn't remember what it was. Is it hardy?

Alan  – (August 10, 2015 at 1:22 PM)  

Jenny: It's a form of Pennisetum purpureum, and is listed as hardy to z8. We've had occasional rain, but I've had to do some watering too.

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