| The Front Garden | ||||
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Colors in the Front Garden have been chosen to compliment our yellow stucco house. This is where we concentrate most of the "hotter" colored plants.
We have several planting wells between the arches of the house where we have put the climbing roses E Veyrat Hermanos and Celine Forestier. The stucco walls provide a more sheltered environment for these Noisettes. An American wisteria, which is supposed to be less of a house eater than its Japanese cousin, is in another planting well. It has shorter flower clusters and since being planted in the spring of 2000, lived up to its milder mannered reputation and stayed politely in bounds. It has also given a few blooms later in the summer in addition to the spring show. There is also a long, shallow planter along the edge of the patio. Annuals so far have been the only thing that have done well in this planter.
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We renovated the beds in front house, which were full of overgrown shrubs. The bed in front of the planter has Hugh Dickson, Peace, Graham Thomas, China Doll, and Lexington. The roses are complimented by a rosemary, creeping phlox, and Victoria Blue salvia which has proved to be hardy so far. Red tulips and daffodils provide spring interest. The bed in front of the window has the climbing roses, Climbing Autumn Sunset planted to grow up trellises on either side of the window. Between these is the English rose Abraham Darby. In front of the climbing roses are hardy hibiscus, gold thread cypress, St. John's wort, blanket flowers, tiger lilies, Ambridge Rose, Oranges and Lemons, and a low growing sedum. The St. John's wort is slowly spreading while the tiger lilies seem to get more and more sparse. |
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 We have struggled with the lawn since the Spring of 2000. We tried shade mixes, lime, daily watering, etc and so on. What we really want to do here is put a Spanish style tiled fountain in the center with gravel paths radiating out from it in a plus shape. Since that is our ultimate goal, we've given up on the grass. Edging the "lawn" is a bed shaded by mature oak trees and screened from the street by pines. We have added a few more evergreens: camellia, azalea, euonymous, and skimmia. We have learned the hard lesson of not planting the azaleas too deeply. | ||||
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