Rehabbing the Front "Fence Garden"

Sunday, March 28, 2021

The frontyard has a little landscaping bed along the property line. The split rail fence was rotting when we moved in, so we removed it...but it took another two years until we ripped out the wooden edging and replaced it all.

There wasn't really much going on in the garden at move-in. Threee daylilies evenly spaced across the front, and tons of dandelions. Our first autumn, I planted some All in One Daffodil Mix for some daffodil variety whcih has been really lovely in early spring.

The following spring, I decided to toss in some cosmos and wildflower seed to fill out the bed while I figured out what I wanted to do with it.

I also ended up with a friend's spare yellow dinnerplate dahlias. Shallowly buried them in the Fence Garden and ended up with a couple real stunners:

And then COVID-19 happened, and that left me with ample time to fill out the gardens. With the backyard garden done, I turned my focus to the fence garden, and decided it'd make an interesting experiment in cut flower gardens.

The side facing our property will be a sunset-colored version of the backyard open garden which is currently all purples and whites. The other side of the split-rail fence will be the cut flowers. More dahlia: Labyrinth and old rose mix. Peony duchess apricot asters and queen lime zinnias. We shall see.

The perennial side has already started a bit. A red fireball monarda (bee balm) was planted, and then moved into its final spot in the autumn before pruning. This red Charmaine Clematis, which was the inspiration for the color palette (along with the yellow dahlias) was installed...although the vines died off completely late summer, and two new shoots eventually appeared. Who knows if it'll return come spring. In the autumn the rose marvel meadow sage, hot raspberry butterfly bush, a few handful of bags of allium schubertii, nutans alliums (on serious sale), and 4 bearded irises (mango entree, cheetah cheese, and frimousse) were all planted. A double dream daylily replaced the center daylily that was underperforming, and the giant daylily was split in half. I've had a heckuva time starting echinacea from seeds, so I am waiting on 5 mixed color echinacea roots to be planted in the spring to hopefully fill out the later summer garden. Any spaces left in the front will be filled in with a sprinkling of breadseed poppies.

So the perennial side of the Fence Garden is mostly taken care of, that just leaves the cut flower garden which must all be grown from seed and spring-planted tubers (i.e., dahlias). I'm super looking forward to seeing what thrives in the spring and getting a tremendous pop of color in the front yard all season long!