As I wrote about in my post Foundational Garden Plans at Withy Holm, I have divided our 1 acre lot up into different gardens to accommodate the differences in space, sunlight and uses in various areas of our yard. This post will cover our front yard. The goal of the front yard is mainly privacy since we live on a very busy road. Several others along the road have used large evergreen to create hedgerow “fences” for privacy but I knew that I wanted a different look and more plant variety.

There are already 3 Bradford Pear trees, lined up like sentries, along the street. As I mulled over what I wanted to do, I began mentally taking stock of what I saw flourishing around town. One day, we were at a local park, Longview Farms, which has a lovely historic farmhouse-turned-art gallery similarly situated on a busy road. A local master gardener, who happened to be the mother of an old schoolmate, is the manager of the project and has donated countless hours over the years to the gardens in the park.

As my son and I meandered through the gardens closest to the house, I realized this was the exact type of space I wanted to create in our front yard. The large shrubs anchor the overall space while providing privacy from the yard. Indeed when sitting on the front porch, it was easy to forget that it was so close to a busy street. The beds also had been filled in with a mix of annual and perennial plants One thought that had been holding me back from filling in our lawn was that I wanted our kids to still have space to play in the front lawn. The gardens at Longview are completely inviting to young children and adults alike thanks to carefully placed benches of tables, and narrow, meandering pathways.My son has such a blast exploring through there- playing chase or hide-and-seek is made more fun by the plants. So this is what I set out to create in our yard too, incorporating both greenery and flowers generous enough to cut from while still remaining ornamental landscapes.

My second source of inspiration is the English cottage garden, with all its whimsy and bounty. Additional resources I used to help choose specific plants are the garden plans, by Better Homes and Gardens, and the Missouri Botanical “Plants of Merit” lists.

Driveway Circle

New driveway, almost completed! We asked that the circle be shrunk to 10ft in diameter.

We tackled the circle in the driveway first by planting a curly willow tree, in honor of our home’s namesake. Then we encircled it with a variety of fall bulbs, which bloomed the following spring. But we were planning on repaving our driveway and wanted to make the circle smaller, so we did not fill the whole circle with bulbs. It was, truthfully, an eyesore for a long while. Come spring, all the flowers bloomed, which was great, but then it was bare again. Later in spring, the David Austin roses I ordered arrived so we planted 5 of them in the bed around the willow tree. These should fill in the space nicely, but we may plant other things as needed. We also decided to place weed fabric down to combat the weeds instead of trying to perennialize the bulbs for a second year of blooming.

Front Creekside

Our first summer, we removed some honeysuckle in the space along the creek bed and began to establish a large privacy bed. I planted 3 lilac bushes and a second willow tree. I had also planted a magnolia tree, but it succumbed to transplant shock. Then when we had our driveway redone, the contractor ended up depositing some of the dirt he had removed for paving into this hillside. It was great because he covered over the weedy undergrowth that had developed and gave us a fresh start on further establishing the bed. We quickly planted 4 Nine bark bushes and an array of evergreen trees for privacy and winter garland or wreath making.This is another area that we plan to fill in more incoming years as time and budget allow. For now, we have laid weed fabric and mulched to give the new things time and space to lay roots.

Window Beds

The front of our house has four sets of windows: two in the dining room to the east of the front door; one in the living room on the west side; and one in the mother-in-law suite, which was formerly a garage.

There are two established beds in front of the windows that flank the front porch. These had overgrown fire bushes in them, one of which was dying. Grey rock had been laid on top of weed fabric, presumably in preparation to sell the house. The hardscape very effectively prevented weeds, but felt barren. The rock was also placed all along the front of the house on the southwest side, in front of the garage conversion area, though nothing else was planted there. After ordering the David Austin Roses, I set to the task of removing all that rock, because I intended to plant some of the roses in there. It was a tiresome labor of love, especially since I was 6+ month pregnant and it took me several weeks. The promise of the spring rose delivery date was a good motivator for me to get those beds prepped.

Once planted, the roses did surprisingly well, each blooming repeatedly through the summer. But we intend to fill in this whole space more using the BHG plans as a jumping off point for a whimsical English Cottage Garden. I would also like to add a pretty bird house atop a pole as a place for a family of birds to nest.

This rose, called the ROALD DAHL, by David Austin Roses, bloomed so many times throughout the summer.

Side Gate and Arbor

In order to enclose our backyard, we plan to install fencing with an arbor and gate to the front. It will be situated on the east side yard. Although I am still undecided if I want a stained wood arbor and gate or if it would look better painted to match the house, I want it to be a visual frame for the splashes of floral color behind it. In front, I want to train wisteria to grow along the top of the arbor. We also plan to continue the English Cottage Garden on this side of the house. We have one David Austin rose that is a climber to tie in the arbor garden with the front rose beds.

Side Yard

The side yard is a relatively narrow area between our house and a steep drop down to the creek bed. I plan to fill the side yard with a collection of hydrangeas, which you can read more about here. Currently there is a towering hedgerow of fire bush. I don’t love them, but I have discovered that they actually hold up quite well in a cut flower arrangement, so I may end up keeping at least a couple, depending on space needed for the hydrangeas. I am also reticent to tear the bushes out in one fell swoop because they provide the most amount of privacy from the road, and prevent young would-be explorers from getting too close to the creek cliff. So far we have gathered up flagstones from elsewhere in the yard which we will use for a pretty, Cap Cod inspired flagstone path to the back patio.

Bradford Pears

Out front, along the street, there are three beautiful, mature Bradford Pear trees. They are planted in a straight line on either side of the driveway and they are the first things to bloom come spring. There is also an impressively-sized purple Rose of Sharon… as well as a dying pine tree. So far we have planted an additional curly willow tree, which we hope will grow up and fill in the hole from the dying pine tree (once removed). We also planted the remaining 8 roses in a meandering row. As with the other areas, we will continue to fill in these beds as time and budget allow, likely with a selection of bulb plants to perennialize or other easy perennials.

Mailbox

For this little area, I only have two words: Clematis, please! But we decided to replace the mailbox, so I will wait to plant until after we have done that.

This is all we have planned or done so far for our front yard. In my next post, I will outline our plans and work in the back yard.