Here's a brief tour of the flower beds around our house.
Stepping out the front door, to the left is the Shade Bed:
From top left to bottom right: Hosta, caramel heuchera, Jack Frost brunnera, Japanese fern, chocolate chip ajuga, and painted lady. I plan to put in a proper walkway this year.
Straight ahead from the front door is the new arch. Eventually there will be a walkway/path to the steps leading to the pergola that will be on top of the hill.
Both the veronica and the geranium are volunteers that have been coming up in the gravel for the past 3 years or so. Just above them, climbing up either side of the arch, is dark purple clematis (Jackmani?), which apparently prefers the new arch because it is blooming more profusely than ever.
To the right of the arch, there is an incomplete bed:
The bigger bush on the right is Wine and Roses weigela. It's quite spectacular when it blooms. The medium green/gray bush is a blue caryopteris, which gets small light blue flowers. The smaller one is Midnight Wine weigela. There are a couple of Scarlet and white pinks in the front (back from this view).
Moving to the right, here's the view down the front walk (more details below):
Along the left, starting at the bottom: Artemesia in front of a creeping euonymous; just peeking out from behind, you can see the tops of the daffodil fronds banded over for the summer; alternating mother-of-thyme and English boxwood; at the very end, black-eyed susans are just starting to get buds. I still haven't figured out what to plant right along the walk, but it needs to be colorful most of the summer and definitely perennial.
Along the right, starting at the bottom: Zebra grass; heuchera; lavender; astilbe; pinks; bleeding heart; another heuchera; holly and sweet woodruff.
The big Purple Palace heuchera close up.
The astilbe patch. There are actually 2 different plants, but the one in front is by far the bigger. Right now (not shown in this photo), it's in full bloom with pinkish lavender flowers.
The sweet woodruff has really filled in nicely around the holly bushes.
At the far end of the walk on the right is the catmint:
Now a couple of shots of the back yard. Buddha is back out on the deck:
The pots both have the same mixture of purple wave petunias with a couple of dark purple salvia and lime green coleus.
This is John's big bed between the deck and patio. There are Goblin blanket flowers, Scarlet pinks, Little Monster geraniums, two different kinds of coreopsis, a creeping euonymous, several sedum, and then the bushes. The 3 green ones to the right are mums. The big one in the middle with the pink flowers is a Little Princess spirea, and the potted bush is a variegated boxwood.
Along the other edge of the deck we have planted the small bed with yarrow, 2 red and 2 pink, with a white one and a yellow one soon to be moved from the old herb bed. No photo, sorry.
So those are the flower beds as they look this year. Just a few more holes to fill in, and these beds will be finished. They're really starting to look as though we've actually lived here for almost 10 years, I think.
From top left to bottom right: Hosta, caramel heuchera, Jack Frost brunnera, Japanese fern, chocolate chip ajuga, and painted lady. I plan to put in a proper walkway this year.
Straight ahead from the front door is the new arch. Eventually there will be a walkway/path to the steps leading to the pergola that will be on top of the hill.
Both the veronica and the geranium are volunteers that have been coming up in the gravel for the past 3 years or so. Just above them, climbing up either side of the arch, is dark purple clematis (Jackmani?), which apparently prefers the new arch because it is blooming more profusely than ever.
To the right of the arch, there is an incomplete bed:
The bigger bush on the right is Wine and Roses weigela. It's quite spectacular when it blooms. The medium green/gray bush is a blue caryopteris, which gets small light blue flowers. The smaller one is Midnight Wine weigela. There are a couple of Scarlet and white pinks in the front (back from this view).
Moving to the right, here's the view down the front walk (more details below):
Along the left, starting at the bottom: Artemesia in front of a creeping euonymous; just peeking out from behind, you can see the tops of the daffodil fronds banded over for the summer; alternating mother-of-thyme and English boxwood; at the very end, black-eyed susans are just starting to get buds. I still haven't figured out what to plant right along the walk, but it needs to be colorful most of the summer and definitely perennial.
Along the right, starting at the bottom: Zebra grass; heuchera; lavender; astilbe; pinks; bleeding heart; another heuchera; holly and sweet woodruff.
The big Purple Palace heuchera close up.
The astilbe patch. There are actually 2 different plants, but the one in front is by far the bigger. Right now (not shown in this photo), it's in full bloom with pinkish lavender flowers.
The sweet woodruff has really filled in nicely around the holly bushes.
At the far end of the walk on the right is the catmint:
Now a couple of shots of the back yard. Buddha is back out on the deck:
The pots both have the same mixture of purple wave petunias with a couple of dark purple salvia and lime green coleus.
This is John's big bed between the deck and patio. There are Goblin blanket flowers, Scarlet pinks, Little Monster geraniums, two different kinds of coreopsis, a creeping euonymous, several sedum, and then the bushes. The 3 green ones to the right are mums. The big one in the middle with the pink flowers is a Little Princess spirea, and the potted bush is a variegated boxwood.
Along the other edge of the deck we have planted the small bed with yarrow, 2 red and 2 pink, with a white one and a yellow one soon to be moved from the old herb bed. No photo, sorry.
So those are the flower beds as they look this year. Just a few more holes to fill in, and these beds will be finished. They're really starting to look as though we've actually lived here for almost 10 years, I think.
