The reinvention of my front yard is a continuing–and far from complete –endeavor. But I’m making progress. In Front Yard Fiasco, I wrote about my frudstrations in trying to create distinctive and welcoming yet low maintenance space in a narrow area bounded by a wooded slope. Now I’ve got part of it done. Part of it…that’s always the problem.
You see, I’m one of those easily distracted gardeners and typically have multiple new projects–this season’s include a big pond about 45×20, a smaller pond 8×12 or so, a waterfall to link them, an outdoor aviary, a massive hemlock plank picnic table, etc. Plus ongoing garden maintence. Starting a new project is easy peasy-finishing it is often another matter. Anyway, I’ve made enough progress out front to post, since many readers of my past post on the topic asked for updates. I wanted everything sleek and simple. Since so much of the gardens are intensively planted, I felt I needed some areas for relief. Lawn works, but I didn’t want to maintain it out there. So the gravel was ideal. Yes, I’ll utimately get weeds, but hey, my dragonlike flame weeder clears big areas in a jiffy, so, no sweat there.
To give the whole scene a little seasonal oomph, I added a collection of pots, many planted with tropicals to echo themes elsewhere in the garden. It also made the perfect location for the many white and concrete pots I have. It’s always bugged my me that they go so poorly with the terra cotta or colored glaze pots which make up the bulk of my collection. It’s all starting to make sense. Next step: planting the foundation beds which I cleared, enriched, and built up before laying down the gravel. Boxwoods, lots of them, to one day be pruned into cumulus cloud-like shapes. That’s the next chapter.
Steve Silk
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