Front Yard Tidy Up

This is an area that I have been repeatedly adding to over the last couple of years. Everything in the photo is perfectly healthy but the structure is bit messy. I have what I need to tidy it up. I just have to be patient and do the jobs in the correct order.

I have drawn a (very) rough sketch of what I am planning to do.


The first issue is to thin out the alliums - purple circles. There are more than one variety in there. I need to wait until they bloom to know which variety is which. The ones I take out I will most likely pot up and give away. The blue Xs are camassia. These are new and yet to come out. I see no reason why they shouldn't be able to stay where they are.

Where the purple Xs are I want to alternate purple aster with purple aubrieta. I have both already in pots ready to go out. The aubrieta is still a bit thin so I am hoping by late summer into autumn they will have beefed themselves up. I am hoping that by alternating them I will be leaving the right size gaps for each to grow into. At the moment I have 3 of each. In time, if needed, I could extend the aubrieta further along the bed.

The white circle would have to work in with the above. For a few years there was a really big crop of snowdrops growing there. I thought they looked a bit messy so last year I decided to tidy them up. What came up this year was a mixture of snowdrops, daffodils and the odd bluebell. Not what I had planned. If I wait until the autumn to plant the aster/aubrieta combo, I can tidy up the bulbs (again) at the same time.

I have some nerine bowdenii bulbs I would like to plant somewhere near to the pink Xs. I have them in pots for now to keep them safe until I decide what to do with them. I believe they will add some nice late colour in the middle when everything else has died down. The aster and the poker (orange circle) should also be in bloom at that time.

I'm not sure what to with the primroses at the front. They are a law unto themselves. Some flower and some don't. The ones that are flowering are pretty enough but in their sporadic state they are not actually adding anything. I would happily replace them with something more reliable or get rid of everything and just extend the aubrieta all the way across.

Lastly, I will need a climber for the archway. I am open to suggestions on that one. It would have to withstand everything the elements have to throw at it.

That should be enough to keep me occupied for a little while.

G.

 

This is how it looked this morning.


This is how it looks now. I have removed several clumps of aliums from the left of the picture and re planted one decent sized clump in a more central position. I have also repositioned the camassia. It didn't flower this year but it might next. Monty Don said it could take 2-3 years. The one that did, came and went very quickly. Again I'm expecting a better performance in future years. In the front right corner I have interspersed aster with aubrieta. The aubrieta is still looking sorry for itself. Now it's in the ground it should settle down. The aster at the far end is still in its pot for now as the concrete in that corner was too thick to break up. Perhaps I'll look at it again another time. There are also 4 nerine bulbs strategically placed around the bed. They might not get the sun they need but I'm happy to wait and see.

I call that a good mornings work.

G.

 

While I was out there I tidied up the other side. I found a new home for the alliums. In the autumn I'll look for more aubrieta (or equivalent) to tidy up the front edge. Everything else I planted in there previously has taken really well.

G.