I decided to put a bit of effort into my front yard this year. I am currently not that interested in my outdoor space in the back, it’s just not a priority, so it will wait (except weeding).
My pride is getting the best of me and the front yard could use a little colour and the house needs a bit of curb appeal so I bought some seeds at Home Depot yesterday. I fear I am a little slow as all the packets say to start indoors 8 to 10 weeks before the last frost. I will plant some seeds and see how they do and hope I get some blooms if a bit late.
I had cut a little plot of land on the side of the house where nothing is going on and I have a little circular plot when the pine tree used to be (remember, the pine was my misfit Christmas tree in December). My front yard faces North and the side plot is on the West side so I got shade plants seeds. I got the following packets (in order of who should grow first):
- Browallia - Trailing Sky Blue (small, light violet flower)
- Impatiens - Super Elfin Cha Cha Mix (white, red and pink flowers)
- Pansy - Show Swiss Giant (your regular variety of pansies)
- Dahlia - Stargazer Mix (multicoloured)
- Begonias - Show Angels Mix (trailing)
They all take various amounts of shade so we’ll see how they do. In the pine tree plot, I am planting sunflower seeds, they should grow up to 2 meters or higher! I am hoping their roots to start to break down the stump underground. I think the front part of the yard gets enough sun for sunflowers to grow adequately.
I am going to be kind an buy some nice topsoil to spread on top and hope that improves their chances of growing (even if planted late). The seeds cost me $21 and the topsoil is $2/bag. That means the whole front yard project will cost me around $30 so far.
I have a few more ideas for the front: new porch light, new numbers, planters on the front stoop, wreath for the front door, etc. But as someone who is doing renovations only when she has the means, it’s a slow process. Don’t get me wrong, it’s rewarding but it is slow.
Before I started work (this is at 1pm, the sun was high so all the plots do get some light):
And after about 3 hours of work. I cleaned up the edges of the 3 plots (made the one beside the house larger) and trimmed the “tree”. I think the tree is dying, there were a lot of dead branches and the leaves don’t look so good. By the tree, the pansies and dahlias got planted, the other seeds are in the back plot.
Not really exciting at the moment but hopefully things will grow. We are scheduled to get some showers tomorrow which ill be good since the hose was stuck behind more lumber than I cared to move.
