"Getting rid of everything that doesn’t matter allows you to remember who you are. Simplicity doesn’t change who you are, it brings you back to who you are."

Saturday, June 1, 2013

Softness and Color

Operating on the theory that curb appeal is important to the overall "look" of your home, SM and I both agreed that adding softness and color was our goal when buying the new plants for the front yard beds.

We buzzed around on Memorial Day shopping for perennials that would satisfy those criteria along with our desire for low maintenance.  The days of trimming all those hollies and boxwoods are over!

The next day I borrowed our neighbors power washer to try and clean up the moldy brick steps and dirty sidewalk area.
 



WOW!  What a difference!  While I was working on that, SM yoinked the remaining 4 boxwoods out.  After all that hard work SM and I were done for the day.

I went ahead and tackled arranging and planting the perennials the next day as SM had to go to work.  That took a lot longer than I'd expected with all the left over roots making digging very difficult.  One thing we hated was how close to the house those huge bushes were planted.  It made it very difficult to do things like paint or wash windows.  I made sure to leave about a 4 -5 foot gap between the house and the new plants so SM and I could do maintenance work. 

I had also run up and gotten a yard of good garden compost to help amend the soil so these babies would get off to a good start.  (I used the remainder of the compost in the garden for the winter squash hills.)

So here's the before...




And the after.






I know it's really hard to see much as these plants are so small so here is a rundown of all that we bought along with stock photos to get an idea of how everything should look.
 
Lororopetalum for an evergreen.  Or everpurple as it is.




Thunder and Lightning Knautia.  Never heard of it but SM spotted these while I was on the hunt for variegated hosta which was sold out.  This has the same green and white colors like the hosta plus a purplish flower.  Can't wait to see how these fill out.





Yellow (Erin Lea) daylilies along with mini-purple (Little Grapette) daylilies.








Fireworks Fountain Grass.





Blazing Sunset Chilean Avens.






And Coreopsis for a nice yellow POP.





Total cost for all the plants was only $150 dollars.  Not bad at all.  And with time I'm sure we'll add a few more plants here and there depending on how these all fill in.

That's the nice thing about gardening.  Watching how everything comes together over time @:)


3 comments:

  1. Y'all are on a roll! You're gonna have a nice punch of color in the front. Looking good.

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  2. What about roses?But I'm bias I love roses.Or daisies that would be pretty.

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  3. AP...We thought about roses, Knockouts specifically as I don't like to fuss with sprays. We've got 4 scattered around the property and they get pretty big if you're not careful. I cut all ours way back this year and I'm not a fan of all the thorns.

    I did see some mini roses that looked kinda like a soft bush. I might look into those.

    I love daisies too. Uh Oh...I don't think I'm done yet!

    Just what SM wants to hear LOL

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