Welcome To My New Front Yard Garden

Growing annuals from seed to fill in the space formerly filled by lawn.

If you follow me on instagram, you’ll know I’ve been working on a new garden in 2021. It all started in September of 2020 when we cleared my exisiting raised beds, all the remaining grass and a few ancient shrubs from the front of the house. (PJM Rhododendrons – anyone remember those?)

Our contractors then put in brick walkways, and a few mulched pathways to loosely structure the space. They also planted a few shrubs at the font of the house, and a shade garden of native ferns at the shady end of the yard. The wide open space in front was daunting in the spring of 2021.

Snap dragsons, Lavatera, Blue Lace Flower, Statice and more

Snapdragons going in the ground

But I had been planning and growing seedlings for weeks, so by mid-May, I was ready. Or so I thought. Like all gardens, this one was not without its heartbreaks – rabbits skirting the fence, a too hot June followed by a rainy July. I’ll spare you the photos of rabbit chewed plants, and a few stunted Dahlias (too close to the shade!) and just say, thankfully, by the late summer, my seed-sown plants started to come into their full glory.

I’m not showing the bare patch behind the zinnias, where the rabbits killed my delphiniums, but I am already planning and making lists and dreaming of next year’s garden. And to that end, I’ll share a few of my favorites from this season below and hope to inspire you in planning your 2022 garden!

Snapdragon ‘Madame Butterfly Bronze’

Clary Sage (Salvia horminum)

Rudbeckia ‘Prarie Sun’

Bee Balm ‘Lambada’

Cosmos bipinnatus ‘Yellow’

Celosia spicata ‘Ruby parfait’ and ‘Flamingo’