Dreaming about spring

The garden catalogs have all been arriving and since it looks like I may have a bit of extra money I can spend on plants for a change I have been making my lists.  It’s just so hard to decide whether to buy a smaller plant through the catalogs or wait and see if I can find larger plants locally.  Trouble is when I get in a local nursery it’s much easier to spend money because the plants are right there in front of you calling your name. 

I am thinking about making the front yard all garden, instead of the small strip of grass that it is.  A lot of it will be path and wood chipped, but I need to decide on what to put out there.  It’s a semi- shaded spot, and the soil is good sandy loam.  I already have heuchera and hosta that do well there, as well as an abundance of ferns, oriental lilies and daylilies.  

I started one small bed last summer around the pole for the satellite TV dish.   We dropped the service but they are still there.  I have a cute birdhouse on a pole next to it to help disguise it but it’s still ugly.  I was going to paint it but I am wondering if I can loosen the bolts and turn the dish upward so it makes a sort of birdbath.  I guess we should just decide if this is a permanent decision not to have satellite TV and remove the dish.  

The ditch by the road is also problematic.  It needs to be open- I can’t plant in it or the road commission will dredge it all out.  And it needs to be accessible to mowing.   By the driveway there is some old split rail forming a corner and I like that.  It has daylilies and daffodils planted there and I was thinking about some large broad leaved plant being planted there next to it that had some summer-fall interest. 

I don’t like how the house and front gardens look in late fall- winter.  In the late spring through summer when all the lilies and ferns are up and growing it looks good but when they die down and expose the foundation and underside of the handicap ramp it looks pretty sad.   So some evergreens are in the plan or something with winter interest.  The photo is the summer after the ramp was installed - the hosta and heuchera are bigger now

At one point we had “outside room” on the west side of the front yard - under the big cedar trees.  It has been neglected and weeds are coming through the mulch.  I like to put my houseplants out under there.  I am going to work on that side through the summer, making it inviting again to sit in and enjoy.  That’s where the gate to the horse pasture is, where we are going to grow some corn and pumpkins this year so it will be a nice place to rest.

My bird feeders are all in the front and I intend to put a mulched area all round them and maybe some planters full of humming bird plants.   The chickens are always scratching around under the feeders and planting in the ground probably wouldn’t work.  A chicken theme- that’s what I need!  Hmmn, got to think about that.