daffodils in front of our house
Work on the yard and garden has been a very slow process. The first summer we had the house we just sat back and watched what grew. In the fall I planted some bulbs and called it good. The second summer I started to tackle a few sections that seemed manageable, a rock bed, the planters, planted a eucalyptus (planted only so I would have windfall leaves….story for another post!) and we built some veggie beds. The third summer (2014) we added some fruit trees, more perennials, started to tame the back (big job) and discovered lavender.
A few weeks ago I decided it was time to look at the front yard and see what could be done.
This front area has a space between the two rock walls where really nothing is growing. In summer this area has sparse patches of dry grass and that is it. Perhaps the original vision was a grassy lawn; from a watering and maintenance standpoint we aren’t interested in it being “lawn”. The whole yard is a bit of a mystery as we keep discovering rock beds and walls as we cut back overgrown plants. It is interesting to think what the original vision was.
I’ve been thinking about this front part for a while and thought it would be nice to have plants that flower running along the top edge of each of the rock walls, with a long term goal of stepping stones running through the center to the backyard that is surrounded by some kind of stompable (as in “won’t die when kids fall off stepping stones”) ground cover.
We were at Home Hardware and as usual I stopped to look at the plant racks. I almost always buy at least one plant when we are at the store, I figure it seems less painful how much I spend on plants if I just do it one or two at a time. These three plants stood out to me as they were deer resistant……..a necessity unless you have a perfectly fenced yard (which we don’t!).
Originally I just bought the three and planted them in the garden spot along the edge of the first rock wall. It seemed like one of those forever projects as the ground was so hard with tons of little rocks; every time we plant something we end up with buckets of rocks.
Now I realize this isn’t the prettiest picture (understatement), but this is hopefully the start of getting “something” to grow in this area. In my mind it should work.
The following day I went and bought more plants to dot further along the edge of both rock walls, plus a few for a couple of other garden areas. Eventually something will work.
(By the way, if you are wondering what the black thing is in the picture above, it is a piece of driftwood we found that looks like a black bird. I’ve always thought it was a pretty cool find.)
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