front yard update: the garden

I've had a "vision" for the front yard for a while. In fact, I shared my color palette with you a while back. My sister-in-law indicated that she would like some of my excess hosta plants. So the day before we were driving down to visit her, the project got started. I got out my shovel and one giant mass of hostas was quickly transformed into 6 plants!

I was busy digging and dividing and my husband started pulling out the creeping charlie groundcover gone wild. Next thing you knew, my garden was mostly bare soil. Oops. So much for the proper "before" picture. I did find this image in the background of another photo. As you will see, there isn't a whole lot going on. Rhododendron on the left, hostas in the middle, a lot of groundcover, and one lonely evergreen topiary in the corner. I also had started some lily of the valley, trillium, and a few random ferns. The patch of garden on the right side has a very happy bleeding heart (he got to stay), some hostas, and some other miscellaneous sun-starved flowers that I attempted to grow.

I shopped at two different greenhouses. One I had a gift certificate to use (from my December birthday!!) and the other is closer to my house, where I bought additional plants and mulch. I forced myself to stay in the "shade loving perrenial" aisles so my focus really had to be more on leaves than on flowers.

After I arranged the plants while still in their pots, I probably only made changes two or three times until I was satisfied. I was trying to vary the leaf shape and also the colors. Several plants are yellow and several others are dark purples so I especially made sure those bright and dark spots got spread out.

There were some rocks around the evergreen topiary (a neighbor rescued him from the curb where he awaited adoption with a "free" sign). I didn't know what to do with them so I arranged them as garden art. Eventually they will be covered up but in the meantime, while my plants are still babies, they add some interest.

Next up:

painting the shutters (they're plastic?!) and the front door a deeper purple

planting a small tree (I am thinking Japanese maple)

new mailbox, light, and house numbers (I am thinking black to match the railing)

new coat of paint on the railing