I have lived in my house for 6 years. My front porch faces the west and it gets hot! I have to be very careful when choosing plants for my flower beds because of the intense sun. When we first moved here big full bushes filled the front flower bed. You couldn’t see out when you sat on the porch. We used my husband’s 4 wheel drive truck and pulled them out with a chain or a rope. I can’t remember which. It was very redneck, but it worked.
The only before photo I could find was the one I took when we came to look at the house to see if we wanted to buy it. See all bushes and no front porch.
So after ripping them up I planted more bushes! Seems silly huh? I knew I wouldn’t let these get so big. I planted lots of flowers which only looked good for so long. Because this flower bed is surrounded by concrete and faces west the flowers need constant watering. Also in the winter the flower bed looked sad.
So the next year I did less flowers. You can tell I have an obsession with symmetry.
The white plant is dusty miller and it comes back every year. The red geraniums do not and they get pricey replacing them year after year. The boxwoods in the back bit the dust last spring when we had a horrible late snow. I had to redo the flower bed again. This time I wanted to give it more interest and not plant things in a horizontal row. I went to Lowe’s in the fall and everything was on sale at awesome prices. I hit the jackpot and went to work.
I kept 4 of the boxwoods. They finally look better this year. Last year they had lots of dead yellow leaves. I kept 2 of the dusty miller plants. You can tell that the left side grows bigger than the right side of the flower bed. Always has. I think because it gets more sunlight. I still have some symmetry going on. I just can’t help myself.
I love this variegated litho trope. It is a perennial and comes back yearly. I bought these last fall.
I just recently found this plant. Not sure what it is but it loves sun and has a great color. I bought 2 of them at Walmart.
I also found this flowering plant at Walmart and I love my stacked rocks behind it. The rocks help fill up the bed and give it texture and color.
This was one of my bargains at Lowe’s. I think it was originally $60 and I got it for $15. It is a bush shaped liked a tree. I like that it gives the bed some height and the landscaping isn’t just horizontal anymore.
I did some bushes on either side of the bed in groups of 3. Still being symmetrical but in a better way than before.
These are boxwoods on the left.
And I forgot what these are on the right, but I really like them.
A couple more shots of the entire bed.
I like how the bed looks good on it’s own because it has lots of perennials and evergreens. If I want to add flowers I can and I won’t have to buy so many.
A quick word of caution. A few weeks ago I thought I wanted another boxwood in front the stacked rocks. I was going to shape it like a topiary. I dug a hole and pulled the plant out of the container. I was holding onto the roots and trying to fit it in the hole when I noticed the dirt moving. There were I bet 100 creepy crawly centipedes living in the dirt that I was holding in my hands! They looked like this.
I freaked. I don’t know if I can every buy plants from Home Depot again. I now carefully check my plants before touching them.
Celebrate summer and get out and plant something, but look at your plant before you touch it.
Linking to
Feature Yourself Friday @ Fingerprints on the Fridge
Garden Party @ Southern Fried Dreams
Show and Tell Friday @ My Romantic Home
Saturday Night Special @ Funky Junk Interiors