The Garden Guy and Mrs. Jan moved to our present house in spring 2019. Ideas flowed like a waterfall for backyard plantings, while the front yard was daunting, for one big reason: It is over a half-acre with a steep upward slope toward the home.
The Garden Guy was raised in west Texas, where trees were the occasional mesquite. Here in west Georgia, I felt like I was in a forest. Thankfully, in between Texas and Georgia, I got a lot of boots-on-the-ground training while working as a horticulture specialist for Mississippi State University.
Sometimes it can be hard for the preacher to take his own advice, but in this case, the old horticulturist remembered his lectures on taking the landscape modification in bite-sized chunks. If you are facing a landscape challenge, I urge you to take it in steps too. This reduces the stress on the mind and on the pocketbook. After all, The Garden Guy is basically retired and on a fixed budget.
The first objective was to reduce turf area as much as possible by clustering trees in islands, or pockets. I suppose you might include expansive sweeps or drifts.
This eliminated turf care here and opened up sea of opportunity for dogwoods, Bloom-a-Thon and Perfecto Mundo azaleas, hydrangeas, Double Play flowering quince, Yin and Yang viburnums and my prized Fluffy gold conifers.
The islands have sunny hot sides, and shadier cooler sides. The sunny side of the islands opened the door to plants like Pugster Blue buddleia and Luscious Royale Cosmo lantanas. Then I added more perennials like Color Coded The Price is White and Frankly Scarlet coneflowers, as well as Pyromania Blaze Red Hot Pokers. Behind these I have been able to incorporate Rockin salvias.
With such a large forested front yard, it has at times given me the feeling of wondering whether guests could find the front door. While I exaggerate slightly, here and at several of my other homes over the years, you quickly realize this is the most important area to have a pocket of welcoming color.
Here I have created a little dazzle with Luscious Royale Cosmo lantana, Angelface Super White angelonia and Sunstar Pentas. There are also four self-watering AquaPots that have more of the gorgeous colored conifers like Fluffy and Polar Gold arborvitaes.
The Christmas tree look of the arborvitae are picturesque on their own; the addition of Superbells Grape Punch, Tangerine Punch and Black Currant Punch have added the "holy wow" factor. The perfect finishing touch was the addition of Dolce Appletini heucheras. So many in my area still don’t understand the effectiveness of heucheras as partners in containers.
The last addition — perhaps unexpected for a front door pocket planting — was a glazed blue bird bath. Partnered with red and white AquaPots, the shiny blue is just a little added magic.
I still spend most of my time out back, and on more than one occasion I have stood in my backyard and wondered where my hummingbirds and butterflies were. Then it hits me: They are playing in the front yard!
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(Norman Winter, horticulturist, garden speaker and author of “Tough-as-Nails Flowers for the South” and “Captivating Combinations: Color and Style in the Garden.” Follow him on Facebook @NormanWinterTheGardenGuy.)
(NOTE TO EDITORS: Norman Winter receives complimentary plants to review from the companies he covers.)
