This is the continuing story of my sister-in-law, J, and her dream of a maintenance-free front garden. Just so you’re up to speed, you’ll want to read the first installment, Garden Makeover - Maintenance-Free & Drought Tolerant?.
When we last left you, we were discussing the issues surrounding D & J’s front flower bed/garden. Yes, those evil and unavoidable issues:
- Maintenance
- Drought
- Exposure
The landscape fabric and mulch that J and I had put down in the garden was doing the trick of keeping weeds away and trying valiantly to retain what little moisture we’d received from rain.
The garden looked okay, just bare. I’d been back between then and now to trim the dogwoods again, but this time I was on a mission - try to come up with a landscape plan for the front bed that would satisfy the specific requirements listed and above all else, put smiles on the faces of D & J.
As a result of various discussions we knew we wanted to include plants with different shapes and growing habits for variety, as well as shrubs that would have visual appeal throughout the year. The dogwoods that are currently in place, are fully covered in variegated leaves throughout the summer, and in the winter the branches are bright red. These are definite keepers. So what about something evergreen? J has made it clear that she does not want another juniper, but she does like yews. Perfect - these are available in various shapes and sizes, and they are slow growers which minimizes maintenance. Besides the dogwoods, J wants to keep the bleeding hearts, lilies and emerald gaiety euonymous from her original garden. Excellent - these fall into both the drought-tolerant and sun-loving categories.
While searching for shrub ideas I happened across an awesome website - Selecting Shrubs for Your Home by University of Illinois Extension. I went into the section titled Search Shrubs, entered the parameters which matched the conditions of D & J’s garden and the shrub qualities we desired, then clicked ’search’. It came back with a list of shrubs that matched our specifications. It was a terrific resource and time-saver. Money-saver too, since it prevented me from having to go out and purchase more gardening books. Isn’t technology wonderful?!
A plan is starting to come together. Now if we could get past this never-ending dry spell and D & J would hurry up and come home from their vacation, we might be able to make some actual progress!
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