Some FRONT Yard Accents in My LOST & FOUND Garden

I wanted to show you some accents I have around my garden areas, front yard this time. Nothing spectacular , but I like them , I especially like when I envision them getting larger..you know when the bushes fill out more ( box woods that I can trim ) , and when the flowers are large and in full bloom ? Many of these images are small beds I planted last year , or the year before...so they have much maturing...but do have promise.

Sort of like me...and you I bet. 

The above is one of a pair of window boxes my husband made me for our front porch. We have a brick house built in 1950 , and we live in a downtown historic neighborhood.

Yards are not large here, and I would say in this neighborhood over 50-60 % of the owners have yardmen.

Except us.

I'm the yard-lady.

 Here is a large decorative arbor my husband built about 6 years ago. I first had rose vines on here, which did not do well. Then I had a confederate jasmine that died ( believe it or not ), and now finally this Carolina Jessamine is taking off after about 3-4 years of nothing. I think the heavy rains we had over the Winter helped this baby.

Close up

Here is one of two dog statues  I have in the front.See my small stash of old bricks I found behind ?
I'm a old clay brick hound.

Here is the one to the left that has a broken nose, which is the reason I bought the pair. I loved his chipped off nose.

Ignore the stickers my son put on the arbor...he's in trouble for that.

I paint , or get my professional painter...my better half, to paint my statues black, like Charleston, SC statues typically are.

Here is a glimpse over our brick wall, of a small bed I planted so when people are walking down the sidewalk they have something nice to look at.

That is Maxine demonstrating how to walk past the garden.

I decided one day to plant around our front tree, encircle it with boxwood holly bushes, , use concrete stacker from my backyard retaining wall that had been around another garden,then add soil and flowers..and voila..I had a garden. 

I think it looks better than these photos, which appear to be washed out.  The ones on the bottom are more true to the colors.The squirrels make a mess in this garden, and some male dogs have killed two bushes to the other side. I put some fencing around it to help some with that ( losing battle ).

 I love the hanging basket we nailed to the tree. I told my husband I wanted to do that and he thought it was a completely dumb idea. I in turn got huffy and told him , " Who is your gardener ?"

Moi.

 He loved it as soon as he came home later and I had it filled with flowers.

I wanted to say , " Told you so...", come to think of it ...maybe I did...but I have had some dumb gardening ideas before...I think us gardeners always have to try anyway when we have a bright idea.

There's a lot  to be said for trying landscape ideas, and if they look dumb or out of place to us later...tear it apart and use some of the plants and items somewhere else.

Imagination is a person's greatest design tool.

That is a broken half of a statue I put into another planter w/ shells around it. Never discard broken statues as you can use the pieces often in other planters.

Here is our entry fountain by the front door. I love to see fountains by front door entrances.

One of my side beds I made in the front last Summer. This guy has a huge crack down his head, I loved that about him too.

I made this round circular bed after dreaming about doing it for awhile ( yes , I do dream about my gardens ), and I found some old clay bricks , and bought some more holly bushes, replanted some other holly bushes from  other areas, encircled it with monkey grass and planted flowers and ground cover inside the dividing areas. Then I put Mrs. Garden of Good & Evil statue ( painted black ), as the focal point.

 Can you tell I love this little garden ! It will looks so good in about 2-3 years. The funny memory I have about making this garden, was all the days I worked on it, plus planting the large bushes to the left of it...my mailman who I love to see because he always calls me ' Darlin' "...well he walks by, I am pouring sweat, dirt all over me, on the ground planting...he goes, " Hello Darlin', I know you could afford a yardman to do all that hard work, you just must be one of those people that like to do that themselves, right ? "

I smile back at him and say he had it partially right, I do like to do it myself.

Oh, I purposefully did not bury the bricks a little in the ground, just ever so slightly this time, as I want them to border my dirt inside for my plants. Time alone will sink them some.

These lovely snapdragons came back after the Winter. I was so happy about that !
I will do an entry about my back garden accents next.
Many blessings and peace to you today,
Gina


" The earth is full of the goodness of the LORD. " Psalm 33:5