Its been two years, and a couple of weeks, since I, well my youngest son, dug up our front lawn. It was decision I laboured over for more than a year – what would I put in its place? Well plants obviously, but what? What theme would I have? Did I need a focal point? How would I get round the space? On and on the questions went until in April 2016 I concluded that I knew the lawn needed to go and I would just trust my instincts as to what came next.
The decision for how to plant the space was sort of made for me as I wanted to relocate a lot of later summer perennials from the back garden. So a whole host of asters and rudbeckias were relocated along with a group of Calamagrostis ‘Overdam’ which is at its best at the moment with its fresh stripy foliage.
However, there is some early summer color from various Aquilegia seedlings which have popped up here and there and the acid yellow flowers of Alchemilla mollis are about to erupt creating a vivid stream along the beech hedge.
I had the height of the beech hedge reduced by something like 3 ft last Autumn and it has made such a difference to the balance of the space. I am toying with removing the Laurel hedge at the front but I’m not convinced yet. The Grevillea ‘Canberra Gem’ has become a bit of a monster. Its well established now and has come through numerous cold winters. I love it firstly because it’s just a strange looking plant, well here in the UK and I like strange, but mostly because I bought it with my late sister; who was thrilled to take me to a nursery she had discovered.
However, the highlight of the front garden this week is the Nectaroscordum siculum which are a real mecca for the bees. I have a host of seedlings which I have been wondering where to plant so I think I will now add them to the front garden to extend the effect.
I need to move a few plants at the end of the season to give them more space but essentially the front garden looks after itself. I do a bit of dead heading to the bulbs and then a big cut down in late Autumn and that’s it.
So to conclude any hesitation I had about digging up the front lawn has long gone.
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