My front gardens always seem to be a work in progress. Although they are over 20 years old, I am always tweaking them. For several years, I didn’t have the time to devote to them and they went more than a little wild. Two years ago, I devoted the summer to getting control of them, digging out weeds, and putting in new perennials. Now, it is finally looking like a cottage garden with something always coming on and something going over.
I am a lover of pastel flowers, so no red, orange, or yellow flowers are allowed in this garden.
Looking from my yard across the street towards the neighbors . . .
I love delicate, airy flowers that sway in the breeze high above the foliage, and Coral Bells have quite an extended bloom for perennials.
Part of this garden has a background of forsythia bushes that I’m trying to whip into some form of a natural, but controlled hedge and divider from my neighbor’s driveway. The other part has a white picket fence backdrop, which is perfect for a cottage garden.
Pretty pink dianthus share their sweet fragrance on the evening air.
After winter ended, summer started – with no spring to speak of. It’s been very hot with lots of rain, so everything is very lush, green, and growing at a rapid pace. Many of the spring flowers cannot handle the extreme heat and don’t last very long, but with all the rain, something else is usually coming on to take it’s place.
With a bad back, you’ll usually find me crawling around on my hands and knees in one of my gardens pulling weeds and dead heading the flowers. But, since the front garden is very close to the street, I try to be discreet and get up as gracefully as an aging woman can . . . but it’s usually not a very pretty sight. Nonetheless . . . I’ll keep gardening as long as I can, or until I can’t get up anymore.
krcc says
wow, impressive! interesting no yellow and orange allowed. but as a pink lover, this garden is great! cant believe how professional it looks with your bad back. my back is fine (today), but my garden is a wreck. great inspiration to improve!
Cindy Coghill says
Yellow is only allowed in the spring, right now in the form of daffodils and forsythia. I love it now for all it’s yellows, but I am a pastel pink, purple, and blue kind of girl.