Beats Mowing It

The front yard of our house

When we moved into our house a few years ago the front lawn was sparse and weedy due to its being shaded by a 35' Callery pear tree between the sidewalk and the street.  We dug up the grass, much to the consternation of one of our neighbors, and started planting a shade garden.  We added a small pieris and a kalmia to the ugly yew planted in the center of the house.  Within a month or two of starting the shade garden the city cut down the giant pear tree and planted a small lilac tree, leaving us with full sun.  The shrubs stayed but we basically started over, keeping in mind my wife's wish to see something blooming at all times of the year.

The bed is now a mix of hardy perennials, bulbs, and a few annuals.  It's a tough bed to water so anything that complains gets moved.  Unsurprisingly, the coneflowers, sedums, grasses, mums, salvias, zinnias and lambs ears carry the show this time of year.

View from the front step

We even colonized the hellstrip.  The whiskey barrel sits on the pear tree stump.  I have to bite my tongue when people park here and smash stuff as they blithely step out of their cars.

I have to remind myself of the bad old days of mowing.  It could be worse.