Friday, May 3, 2013

Checking in on the front yard

We're having an unusually sunny spring and the front garden is really appreciating it. Even though the cannas are just starting to poke up and the zauschneria is still pretty tiny, everything looks so much fuller than it did last spring.

2013

2012

2011

My Verbascum bombyciferum is going to bloom, which makes me a bit sad, since the rosette it formed is so, so nice.




I can't wait to see what it will look like when it's actually filled in at the height of summer. If we're being honest, I'm a little fearful too. I have crammed so many plants into this area that I think it's going to be a little nuts. I'm going to be moving some plants in the fall, I think.

26 comments:

  1. Holy crap the comparison is AWESOME!

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  2. It is so amazing what a year's worth of settling in and growing can make...fabulous! Your Camassia are so pretty!

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  3. Thank you! I'm so glad I planted the Camassia--I almost forgot to order them last fall. That would have been a tragedy!

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  4. It looks fantastic, it's changed so much form the last spring plant swap,

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  5. Jane / MulchMaidMay 3, 2013 at 4:39 PM

    It's so exciting to see things filling in. I was visiting Anna Kullgren today: she lives about four blocks north of you. I told her if she wanted to drive by, she wouldn't even need your address - the garden will make it abundantly clear which is your house!

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  6. Very inspiring! Makes me feel like there is hope for the gardens I am starting from scratch this year. I love the rock bed / rain garden in the middle!

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  7. Fabulous before and after shots! I, too, find it incredible how fast things can grow and fill out. I love that you took out all the grass. The front is so much more interesting and beautiful now.

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  8. Wow the befores don't look like it was even the same garden as in the after! Nice work (and your agaves are HUGE!)


    I need to try and remember to buy a Verbasum 'arctic summer' every year, that way I'll (theoretically) always have one blooming and one in that perfect rosette stage.

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  9. Absolutely beautiful!

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  10. Very dramatic and positive changes from year to year. Part of the difference from 2012 is the weather, but a big part is also that the plants have matured, no? That verbascum is truly stupendous! Can't wait to see it in flower.

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  11. Looking so, so good. Classic before and after shots over three years. Even though you may have to move things to keep from being overwhelmed now, isn't it rewarding?

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  12. Wow Heather! The transformation is fabulous! About your previous post, I've found that the customer reviews on Dave's Garden about mail order nurseries to be very helpful.

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  13. Looking back gives you every right to feel smug. Your vision is coming into being.

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  14. Oh no, I hope I don't sound smug! Mistakes and missteps abound!

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  15. Thank you! I think it was just bare dirt when you visited, right?

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  16. We're neighbors? No way! I'll have to go looking for her garden . . .

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  17. Thanks! I'm feeling your pain (from your post this morning) with the warm weather. It makes it so hard to keep new plants alive.

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  18. Thank you! I think anything is more interesting than lawn, too.

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  19. I think I have an Arctic Summer seedling from Ryan planted, so I can have a rosette every year. He said they don't always seed true, I think? It's a bummer that we might not be able to have a free perpetual supply.

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  20. Thank you, Mama! I love it when you comment. :)

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  21. Thank you, sir! I think the flowers should start soon on the verbascum. Probably just in time for the rains to start up again and make everything soggy and sad looking.

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  22. Thanks so much, Peter. That's good to know that the Dave's Garden reviews are helpful--I'm going to look up some right now!

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  23. I love it! And it gives me hope that ours will fill in over the next year, too.

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  24. Your front garden looks so, so good. I always have a hard time with instant gratification, but it's clear that the time you took to do it properly was well worth the two year wait.

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