Building a Front Yard Garden at Serendipity Gardens – One Year at a Time

Serendipity Gardens  » Fauna, Flora, Gardening »  Building a Front Yard Garden at Serendipity Gardens – One Year at a Time
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Front yard beautyMost of Serendipity Gardens lies within the back fence, behind a gate that sports a frog sign saying “Welcome to My Garden.” The front yard, however, is what a visitor to the garden first sees. Over time, I am pleased to say, it has melded together into a pretty sight. Time is the key word here, though, because I have been working on this vista for at least six years. Here is the story of the front yard.

When we moved into this house, 12 years ago now, the front yard consisted of two forsythia shrubs, a Korean lilac, a dwarf Alberta spruce, and a few common hostas. The area between the driveway and the front porch had only a short sidewalk, and the part of the yard between that walk and the driveway often became quite muddy in the winter.

Today, the lilac, Alberta spruce and forsythia shrubs remain. Likewise, some of the hostas. Otherwise the front yard is completely different.

First Steps

We started by digging out most of the hostas and moving them to a shadier location. We did not get every last bit, however, and those missed bits have grown large, as have the shrubs. We experimented with what to plant in front of the porch.

  • Failure #1: First, we put in 25 mums. They looked fabulous that fall, but in the spring that followed, only a few of them returned.
  • Failure #2. Next we tried lirope, thinking it would make a nice ground cover. Indeed, it did. But keeping it pretty year after year proved impossible. It just looked ragged.

Clematis on porchI had a flat gray rock that I had given to my husband a few years back, and so we decided to put that rock in the center of the area in front of the porch. It weighs about half a ton, so this was no small chore. The rock is there today, with a metal frog sitting on top. We began to plant around the rock, starting with two evergreen ground covers. We also added the shrub in the lower right of the photo above and another just like it near the corner of the porch. Finally, we planted three clematis — two purple ones that bloom in July and one pink and white striped one that blooms in the spring — along with a row of Autumn Joy sedums. It all looked sparse and skimpy, but at least we had a start. Success at last!

The New Sidewalk, Part 1

We knew we needed a sidewalk. Enough with the muddy feet already! This was one chore we hired out, and I have been thankful ever since that we did. The masons from a nearby shop used the same block we used on our patio to create a walk that is wide at the entry point and narrows down to meet the edge of the front porch. It works well, leading the visitor nicely from the drive to the front door. Two large pots flank the wide end of the walk, defining the entry point.

The Ribbon of Color

With the sidewalk and first plants in place, I came up with the the idea of a ribbon of color, starting on the left and running at an angle across to the other end of the house and then around to the side garden. I started with cushion spurge and other plants from the spurge family. To those, we added huecheras, several of them cuttings taken from a large one in the back, others new. We divided and moved several lady’s mantle plants from the back and took cuttings of perennial geranium. Finally, we added several blue fescue plants and three lavenders. My idea was to have all the plants be soft shades of burgundy, blue, green, and purple. So far, so good.

But certainly not finished! The amount of bare dirt was always astonishing. How could I have so many plants and still have room for more?

New Sidewalk, Part 2

The sidewalkAt the Farmers’ Market one Saturday morning, we found a vendor selling Emerald arborvitaes. I had been coveting these shrubs at big box stores, but these were cheaper. We bought several. When we got home, I sat the pots where I thought they would look good, and suddenly, I “saw ” — in my mind’s eye — the sidewalk that would lead to the garden gate. It fit just perfectly  between the new shrubs.

I had wanted some sort of sidewalk for awhile, but now that I had the vision, it became more “urgent.”  Once again, we hired out this job — and once again, I am thankful that we did. This was the first work our Renaissance Man, Kelas Brown, did for us, and he did a superb job. The walk is smooth and level, and it connects beautifully to the front sidewalk and to the patio in the back. It provides just the edge the ribbon of color needs and makes the garden look so much more complete. It also provides a mud-free way to approach the back garden.

Filling in the Spaces

Since the sidewalk, we have added several pots and plants, continuing with the same color scheme — more huecheras, epimedium, artemesia Powis Castle, roses, and Cheddar Pink dianthus. Veronicas and salvias add intense spots of blue. Most recently, a guara adds an airy touch. The best addition of all, however, has been sweet alyssum. I planted some along the sidewalk one year, and they bloomed nicely. The next year, I threw some seed about, and the original alyssum reseeded themselves and returned. This year, they returned again, and the ones I seeded have grown and spread. These lovely little white and purple flowers now are filling in lots of the empty spaces in the garden, making it look more full and finished than it ever has before.

Lessons Learned

The keys to this front yard garden have been time and patience. I did not start out with a grand design, with every plant laid out just so on a piece of paper. We developed this garden piece by piece, plant by plant, year by year. It’s looking good, but it’s still not done. Spaces to fill still exist, and I really want to remove the forsythia and replace with shrubs that offer year round interest and beauty as well as food for the birds, bees, and bugs.

If nothing else, a garden will certainly teach you patience! It will also teach you that design is not static, that inspiration can come from unexpected places, and that plants need time to settle in, build roots, and grow before they look their best.

Plus, of course, serendipity. Sometimes, beautiful things happen despite the gardener!

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