March 2005:
The house started with the traditional landscape bed across the front. It was small, had harsh straight lines, and featured boxwoods, hostas, monkey grass, iris, bermuda grass, and weeds. There was one small (less than 3 feet) ornamental tree in the front yard, conspicuously placed about 2 feet from the curb on the side of the street. The "tree" was promptly taken out. CG did not remove the boxwoods with the utmost tlc, and they have since transcended to greener pastures. The other plants were very useful, and have out-preformed all expectations. The huge clumps of monkey grass have been divided numerous times, and now offer a solid border from the front walk to the river birch. The hostas were divided as well, and completely fill the deep shade areas on both sides of the front walk. The iris were all of the same variety (light blue) and can be found throughout all of the other beds.
The curved outside edge of the front bed was trenched-out 5" deep (5" wide) and filled up to ground level with cement. This provides a weedless 'invisible' border that the lawnmower can travel across (no need to weed-eat). Monkey grass was planted along the inside of the cement border. It has taken a few years for it to thicken-up, but it progressed nicely.
July 2005:
The front bed is tiered with azaleas against the house, raised about 8" from the rest of the bed. They have been pulled-up and moved almost every spring since they were first planted. They've had it rough, but they're still alive. In a few more years, the azalea bed will be a solid naturalized mass of bright red blooms for many spring times to come.
(remaining photos from January 2009)
The lower ground level part of the bed features nandinas. They are durable plants that look good year round. Most of the nandinas started-off as gallon sized plants, but a few good deals were found on some 3 gallon sized ones. By next spring, CG expects all of the nandinas to have grown together. Patience mixed with high anticipation.
The river birch trees anchor the corner of the front bed. Without the trees, the bed might seem overly large and out of place in the context of the neighborhood. Evergreens were considered, but with the peely bark and natural silhouette of the branches during winter, the clump river birch trees won out.
