Rita, your front yard is gorgeous.The left side is much pprettier then the right side,only because it seems to have a lot more plants and blooms,,thicker plantings,maybe,then the right side does.I just bet next spring, the right side will be just as gorgeous as the left side when those daylilies grows more and is blooming and gets thicker.The far end on this right side is gorgeous.The daylilies just need to grow and fill out in those planter boxes and it will be fantastic like the left side is.These photo's are gorgeous.

Jean

Your neighbors must love looking out their windows everyday at your yard. So beautiful. I have learned from you that if I don't like the way it looks, move it. I've even moved a daylily 6 inches back cause it looked better LOL.

I think everything looks great the way it is. But, you look at it everyday and know when something just isn't quite right. That Butterfly bush looks huge. Do you cut it back each spring or let it bloom on last years growth?

I let one bloom last year on the previous years growth and it was huge 6 ft tall 6 ft wide. I decide not to let them do that any more. Took up way to much space.

Andrea

What a treat you are giving the neighborhood. Since I'm new to the forum this year, I was wondering how many years you have been working on this? You have done so much this year, that it makes me wonder what it looked like before. Do you have a before picture to share?

I can just imagine those roses in bloom. I can relate to the daylily colors. Sometimes I look out at mine and all I see is yellow, gold or orange. Hopefully in another year that will all change as my new ones get bigger.

I think you have a lovely place:)

Vickie

The left side is absolutely gorgeous,( so is the other side) and now I understand where your pond is. What a great job you have done, Only one question Rita, why have you not planted anything in the 'Devil Strip' ?????? That's prime area!!! LOL. not sure what you call it there, I think it might be a local term here in NE Ohio for that section of lawn between the street and sidewalk. You could use it to line out seedlings. You gotta have one of the best collections of just beautiful DL that you could be crossing, just think of the possibilities.!!! Hey, just a passing thought.
Anyway, gorgeous pics. Thanks for posting, I too would want to see some before pics if you got em.
Cindy

Jean - Thanks. I knew that the new daylilies in the planterbox would not do much this spring. But I can just immagine it in my mind that it will be looking fanastic next bloom season.

Andrea- I have six butterfly bushes and I cut them way, way back early each spring. Otherwise they would take over the world. This is actually one of the smaller butterfly bushes but my favorite color of the ones that I have.

Vickie- That row of hedges on the left side I put in about 6 years ago. The half round planterboxes (at least the big ones) were there for afew years. Otherwise I started that left side last spring.

I put that low stacked stone retaining wall in last spring that runs accross the entire front.

On the right side, the topmost curved terrace was done in 2007 and the daylilies and roses in that terrace section went in that spring. The foribundaville rose garden on the right was already there, at least it was started but not as finished as it is now. The planterbox went in last fall and was only planted this spring.

Cindy- I can not plant anything in the sidwalk strip. First off dog walkers many times each day. Fortunately we have a pooper scooper law here. Second cars park all along in front of the house constantly and if it were planted, it would be impossible to open the passenger door and step out.

We have a 16 acre park directly accross the street for where I am. There are no nightbors on the other side of the street. There are however, lots of walkers and cars that slow down to look at the garden.

Wow! Rita. Not much room for improvement to my old eyes. What are the shrubs that back the first daylily bed. The ones anchored by the butterfly bush? Are they amenable to being sheared to a formal shape?.....I love the hardscape too. Is it a dry wall or mortered in place?

Very lovely indeed!

maryl- Those are fruiting shrubs mainly to attract the fruit eating songbirds. They are called Goumi. The birds absolutely love the berries and there are always bird squabbles going on in the hedgerow during fruiting time.

They are quite edible and would most likely make a great jelly. Very tart but I like to eat some picking right off the shrubs if I can get any ripe ones before the birds find them.

No, you can not shear them, I do sometimes neaten them up by cutting the branches that get too tall or seem to go the wrong way. I bought them as mail order small potted plants from Raintree Nursery out west.

The stacked stone low wall going accross the front is cemented. Those are real rocks in various sizes and it took four men working four very long days to build that wall. I just love the way it came out!

The more terra cotta colored walls are made of a landscape block made to be dry stacked to build terraces and walls. Each block has a lip in back that you lock against the one underneath.

Thanks for the info Rita. I'd never heard of Goumi berries until you showed the shrubs, so looked them up. They are members of the Eleagnus family which I have heard of before (just not the Goumi ones). As you said they are a little tart for raw eating, but make a good syrup, pie etc. See, I learn something every day on this forum......The dry wall in the very front was well worth the $$ and effort in my opinion. I just love them. I like the other type too. So simple to do if you can find the labor (I can't lift the stones by myself). Just lovely all of it.

OH, Its a park across the street.I seen cars parked there in one of your other photos and I was thinking you have a school across the street from you,, but,, its not a school and a park instead.A lot of folks to see that gorgeous front yard. ()))

Jean

You probably saw the parking lot of the big park and beach. Its really very quiet here except on holidays and saturdays nights when they have the free concerts in the park all summer long. Of course, I can hear the music very well, whether I want to or not, ha. I have been known to sit out on the porch on saturday evenings and listen to the music and drink a glass of wine or two :-))

I forgot to say that they park school busses there in the afternoons till mornings during the summers. Don't know what thats all about but I just ignore the busses.

Geez. You have a beach across the street, too? wow, but, I just bet it can get mighty noisey, too.I bet its very nice to sit out on the porch and listen to the concert music.In Illinois, where I grew up at, we had a park down town, well wasn't right up in town, but a few blocks out,and they had concerts a couple times a month,and I would walk there with my grandmother and we would sit and listen to the band for awhile.I was around 8 or 9 years old at that time.I was raised by my grandmother.

Jean

Updating the progress and the looks of the gardens in the front yard.

On the left side both the daylilies and lilies are done. As the stalks die and turn brown on the lilies, they are not so noticeable as the zinnias have grown and taken over the top part of the garden. They continue to provide color for that section. Plus, while before they were shorter and in back of the taller oriental lillies, now they are much more noticable.

On the right side of the garden the daylilies are done and again, the roses take the show. Roses have the first show in June. Then daylilies, then roses again now in August. Its designed to give a lots of color going on most of the time.