The Front Garden

This is our show garden, out front by the sidewalk where anyone can see. It begins flowering in March and has color far into fall.

One spring Joan suggested building a garden beside the driveway. Since we already had a couple driveway gardens, I needed that clarified. Out we went, looked over this corner of the lawn, and agreed to a 4 by 8 foot rectangle with Burning Bushes at both ends.

Digging out that rectangle was painful. Evidently the contractors who built our lawn put a six-inch layer of clay just below the turf line. But we eventually planted our bushes, and filled the intervening space with tall Verbena and Cranesbills and Bellflowers and Foxgloves and a Columbine. And a couple Blanket Flowers.

Blanket Flowers, we've since learned, will take over your garden. So will Cranesbill, but they're more patient; they send out colonies.

This bed changes constantly. We doubled its size one spring, and then expanded it again. One year I ripped out one of the Burning Bushes. We add perennials every year. Once we removed almost everything on the front half, and planted new stuff.

This year we've Coneflowers and Sedum (yep, we plant Sedum everywhere) and Yarrow and Black-Eyed Susan and Beard Tongue--and still the Blanket Flowers and Cranesbill and even a bit of Verbena, all descended from the originals. And a Columbine. We really like Columbine.

This garden's a bit of a mess, just now; next spring we'll likely rebuild it. And that bush really needs a trim. That's coming in a day or two.

My brother calls this The Square Garden, which is accurate but implies we've no imagination. Perhaps he's right, but we're fairly proud of this effort.