My 'no grass' front garden, many photos!
Perhaps some of you might remember this disgusting photo I posted jokingly, but with a very red face, on a thread about coordinating your front yard with those of your neighbors? There were some humorous responses to my photo (LOL Irma!!:)) Back in June some of you kindly offered me tips on visiting my first plant sale (USF). No-one warned me not to go crazy! ......I did!
So I have spent the hottest and most humid months of this year planting my full sun front yard! When you all talked about sensibly staying inside your cooled homes I was too embarrassed to tell you what I was doing! My neighbors waved sadly at this madwoman as they drove by, probably stifling their laughter until they were out of sight! There was little need to water my plants, my sweat watered them as I planted!
Don't you love a happy ending? My front GARDEN, although still only a few weeks old, is a hive of activity every single day! The bees arrive first each morning and leave last in the evening, well apart from those that slumber overnight atop the Indian Blanket or Cone Flowers. Then wave after wave of butterflies arrive and the first Hummer ever to visit my yard! It is incredible how many numbers and species of butterflies are in my small garden at one time! I am so thrilled I am choked! I even find my DH standing at the sitting room window watching all the activity in the garden!
Here are some of the 'frequent fliers'!
Giant Swallowtail
Eastern Black Swallowtail
Monarch
Sulphur
Viceroy
Palamedes Swallowtail
And the neighbors....well, many stop by to say how they love the garden, strangers drive by slowly, or even stop, to watch the butterflies, and my next door neighbor (vistas of red cypress mulch and 3 plant varieties only on her entire property) tells me daily how much she loves my garden!! A few days ago she came to tell me excitedly that she had just seen "the coolest ever butterfly, it looked just like a zebra!" She now wants a plant list!!
Zebra Longwing
Another neighbor (mostly lawn, paving, and high maintenance containers) brings her little daughter to see the butterflies and the dozens of caterpillars! She was thrilled that a butterfly had landed right on her arm! My neighbor was astounded when she asked about maintenance that, unlike her, I rarely have to water and use no pesticides!
Gulf Fritillary - one of the most frequent visitors!
Skipper, masses of these every day.
Zebra Swallowtail
White Peacock
Pipevine Swallowtail
Spicebush Swallowtail
Sorry that this was long, I just wanted to share with you. I have learned so much from you all. (Special thanks to Marcia for posting a very useful plant list and for snake and frog id's.) This couldn't have been achieved without you all! Our little garden is giving me and many, many others so much joy! Thank you!!!!!!
Comments (32)
goldenpond
14 years agolast modified: 9 years agoimagardener2
14 years agolast modified: 9 years agoRelated Discussions
Front yard gardens...post your photos
Comments (16)Thanks, dancinglemons. Any beds are better than no beds at all, I say. Bonus that you had hubby do it for you instead of having to do it all yourself, lol. The 8x4 bed, and 2 of the 4x4 beds are only going to be 9" tall. I figured that giving myself an extra 3" on top of the required 6" would be good enough, but maybe not? I did plan on one bed having one more set of timbers, which would make it around 12" high. I'm also thinking of not pounding the rebar into the ground, and instead slipping a short length (like 5 inches, maybe?) of pvc over the protruding parts on both sides, then inserting a 10' length of pvc into each piece to create hoops to then later add tulle or plastic as needed. I'm not sure it'll work, and I've never seen it done that way, but it should be a pretty cheap experiment to test out. I figure, with the weight of the lumber, it's not like the beds are going to go anywhere. What's the point of hammering the rebar into the solid ground and creating more work for myself? Along the lines of adding more work, I'm also thinking of pounding some rebar into the ground in the middle 4x4 bed, which will be the highest, slipping some copper pipe over the protrusions, and fashioning a trellis out of it. I know it'll be more expensive than pvc, but copper looks so great when shiny and new, and keeps its interest as it ages and develops a patina. Plus, it'll last forever, and it seems like it'll be a nice, semi-non-ugly solution for climbing plants. If it works out, I may build shorter ones for the other two 4x4 beds that flank it, or give them some other sorts of support structures on the sides closest to the fence. As for watering, I'm not really sure what I'm going to do just yet. When I say I'm learning as I go, it's really true... I have NO idea how to set up a soaker hose! There used to be an automatic sprinkler system on the lawn, and I suppose there still is, but the water isn't going to go where I need/want it, so that's kind of out. I would like to capitalize on the fact that this place has a fancy programmable watering timer installed in the garage to control everything, but I honestly don't know how any of it works. I don't know where the pipes are running, or how to hook anything up to them, or anything, and it seems like it might be a complicated process. Until or unless I get things figured out, I'll probably just be watering with the hose every day....See MoreFront yard gardens: growing more than grass
Comments (1)Nope. I've read excerpts in Canadian Gardening though. She's was the founding editor. Looks like an interesting book....See MoreHow many layers of grass clippings in a garden might be too much?
Comments (38)Oh... and wood used on the surface does not effect nitrogen at root level. Wood at root level does not 'deplete' nitrogen. What happens is that fungi, bacteria, and other soil flora and fauna use the available N in their bodies. As they die, the N is slowly released when their bodies decompose. Any biological entity can then make use of that available N (different species can more effectively use N in different forms.) It can impede a plant's ability to make use of available N because of the competition with that soil biome. However, adding a little available N can help alleviate the problem, and in the long-run, once that soil life has done it's job and decomposed the wood, the N is now in a slow-release state for future plant use. So... adding organic matter (including wood) can, in the short term (depending on the mass, and the environmental conditions, as well as the composition of the OM) cause competition for the available N. In the long term, the structure, and the nutrient profile of the soil is improved....See MoreOh, no no, roses! We are NOT having any rust in my garden.
Comments (19)It's helpful to know I'm in good company! I've never seen anything like this rust outbreak in my garden. And nothing will move a rose out of my garden faster than Cheeto leaves! My RdR is mature, maybe close to 15 years in my garden. It's one of the first roses I planted and has always been super clean, but now it's super icky. I hope I managed to strip all the fungus. At least rust is a helpful shade of neon orange. Hard to miss! I even found some speckles on Tradescant and The Prince as well as Tamora! The weirdest discovery is what I DIDN'T find: rust on Abraham Darby. He rusted earlier (as always), and I stripped the infected leaves as the fungus presented itself. But now, smack in the middle of the big epidemic, AD only has his usual defoliating blackspot. Really?! Locals drive around with bumper stickers that say "Keep Portland Weird." My garden is sure doing its part. Carol...See More
c9pilot
14 years agolast modified: 9 years agoKaraLynn
14 years agolast modified: 9 years agoshellfreak
14 years agolast modified: 9 years ago
marcia_m
14 years agolast modified: 9 years agoamberroses
14 years agolast modified: 9 years agostuartwanda
14 years agolast modified: 9 years agokgardens
14 years agolast modified: 9 years agofighting8r
14 years agolast modified: 9 years agomanature
14 years agolast modified: 9 years ago
SaintPFLA
14 years agolast modified: 9 years ago
thonotorose
14 years agolast modified: 9 years agosis3
14 years agolast modified: 9 years agomanature
14 years agolast modified: 9 years agogardencpa
14 years agolast modified: 9 years agosis3
14 years agolast modified: 9 years agoTo answer some specific comments, it is going to be a pleasure to maintain this small garden but I can see that karalynn's 3/4 of an acre would be a much more daunting proposition, and as for goldenpond's 2 1/2 acres....well, I perspire at the thought of all that work!!! However I do wish there was more land here to garden, this is a waterfront lot, only 50' wide.
Shellfreak I will check out 'Monarch Watch'. I have never visited the butterfly forum, so I will lurk on there to see whether I can contribute. Thank you.
marciapa my plant list is below, I hope it helps you as Marcia's (manature) list helped me. I can heartily recommend a grassless front yard. It will be interesting to follow your progress if you decide to undertake it.
Thank you for your encouragement thonotorose. It is sometimes daunting for a newbie like me to post when there is such knowledge and experience here. I usually assume I am going to bore, rather than inspire, but now you have inspired me to continue to post.Here is my original plan. Sorry, I couldn't rotate it. The beds are colored green and the blue areas are mulched access paths.
The plan for the front yard was very simple. We built a curving flagstone path to the front entry and flanked it with a narrow bed raised by a dry stack stone wall. This continues around the flagstone terrace directly in front of the sitting room window. At the lower level there are mulched beds bordered by a mulched access path. There has to be access to the underground propane tank and the water meter. There is a circular area of mulch around the gas tank lid where there will be a something attractive to disguise the tank lid, and a few more containers.
This photo was taken from the second floor window. The terrace and a flower bed are out of sight below.
Hopefully the plants will eventually fill out to cover most of the mulch and will spill out on to the access paths. At the moment there is rather a lot of mulch showing (but not nearly as much as there was when the garden was first planted! :)
Towards the street from the entry
To the street from the terrace
To the street from the side yard
To the entry from the garden
From the driveHere is the plant list:
Lantana, Bush Daisy, Diamond Frost, Coneflower, Indian Blanket, Brazilian Red Hots, Shrimp Plant, Blue Daze, Buddleia, Milkweed, Cassia, Mexican Heather, Mexican Petunia (Purple Showers - sterile) Penta, Maple Leaf Hibiscus, Globe Amaranthus, Purple Top Verbena, Firebush, Plumbago, Firespike, Firecracker, Kaffir Lime, Meyer Lemon, Black Eyed Susan, Dwarf Powder Puff, Tea Olive, Coral Honeysuckle, Dill, White Almond Bush, Purslane, Dutchman's Pipevine, Gardenia, Thryallis, Porterweed (red and blue), Fountain Grass, Crape Myrtle, Jatropha, Flax Lily, Duranta, Vinca.
It's a long list for such a small garden but it may explain the wonderful variety of creatures that visit daily!
Marcia, I have been reading about the wild Paw Paw (what a great plant!) and I wonder if there may be some in the conservation area directly across the street from my garden (visible in some of the photos). It looks like a rain forest in there, I have been dying to explore it for years, now I am definitely going to do so, if only to seek the Paw Paws. From the street I can see many butterflies floating around in there, mostly Swallowtails and Sulphurs!
When I went to take these photos this morning there were 4 Swallowtails, a Gulf Frit, several Sulphurs, a Zebra Longwing, and many Skippers and bees already at work! In my tiny garden! My heart sang!
imagardener2
14 years agolast modified: 9 years agonatives_and_veggies
14 years agolast modified: 9 years agoannafl
14 years agolast modified: 9 years agomanature
14 years agolast modified: 9 years ago
Lisa Brown
14 years agolast modified: 9 years agomarcia_m
14 years agolast modified: 9 years ago
sharbear50
14 years agolast modified: 9 years agodavid2267
14 years agolast modified: 9 years agoteka2rjleffel
14 years agolast modified: 9 years agoKaraLynn
14 years agolast modified: 9 years agocarmiewest
14 years agolast modified: 9 years agomaggiepearl
14 years agolast modified: 9 years agosis3
14 years agolast modified: 9 years agoimagardener the Osprey community sounds very interesting, it would be great if you just happened to have your camera with you when you drive through. Do you think the residents would mind?
sharbear we did not have a lot of grass to remove, but a concrete drive and parking area and a lot of neglected and overgrown shrubs with horrible roots, and weeds. Here is a photo of the front entry before we began remodeling/rebuilding the house and garden.
The worst problem was that after I had bought loads of plants from the USF sale we discovered that there was a layer of hard pan from the old drive about 12 to 15 inches below the dirt covering the entire garden area. In addition the dirt was almost pure sand and very infertile. So in the middle of June we had to remove all the dirt, then the layer of concrete, then replace and amend it. This had to be done very quickly as the new plants were in their little pots waiting to be planted. There is no shade, it was so hot we could work only from about 7am to 11am at best each day and even then it was exhausting!!
This is a similar view now.
Just a quick critter update. It has been a few days now since we last saw our little hummer. I hope it hasn't left for the season.
Yesterday as DH was watching his first Zebra Swallowtail a Polydamas Swallowtail swooped in! The photo is a bit blurry, they flutter so! I think that makes 14 species of large butterflies visiting a garden the size of our family room! Amazing!
Thank you all so much! It is such a thrill to think that my little garden may have inspired some of you, you all have certainly ENCOURAGED me! There's no stopping me now!
Enchante Moore
11 months agolast modified: 11 months ago
sis33