Last week I posted about all the autumn projects I have planned for the backyard (see: https://www.mrvintageman.com/autumn-is-here-which-means-its-time-to-get-back-out-into-the-garden/). Thankfully, I don’t have has many front yard projects planned as I do in the backyard. I mostly intend to swap out a few plants that aren’t performing as well as I would like with ones I think will do better, also add a few shade plants to a dry shade area, and finally I’ll replace three ornamental grasses that died over the summer.
To start with, let’s take a look at the little border that is right outside our front window. On either side of this trellis is a Calamagrostis ‘Karl Foerster’ feather reed grass. I planted these here to match the feather reed grasses on the other side of the little sidewalk that leads to our front door. I was hoping to create the impression of a path going through a grassy field.
Alas, my hopes were dashed. I am pretty sure that the area is in too much shade for this type of grass to do well. In the photo below, you can see how puny and pathetic one of them looks.
For comparison, this is how the same variety of grasses look on the other side of the sidewalk. Quite a contrast, don’t you think?
So, in their place I am going to plant a shade loving Japanese forest grass. If you remember from last week’s post, I am going to plant a variety of Japanese forest grass named Hakonechloa ‘Aureola’ in front of the deck in the backyard. Out here in the front, I am going to replace the feather reed grasses with two Hakonechloa ‘Beni-Kaze’. Unlike the ‘Aureola’ grass, ‘Beni-Kaze’ is not variegated. Instead, it is a solid, bright green grass that turns a reddish-gold color in autumn.
Japanese forest grasses are not particularly waterwise. But that’s OK, for I also have a Hosta, a couple of clematis vines, and a Japanese anemone (a fall bloomer) growing in the same border, and they aren’t all that waterwise either. Since the area is literally right in front of the water spigot, it is no hassle for me to turn on the hose and water the area on a weekly basis during the hotter months.
Raised bed
Moving over a few feet, we come to the raised border on the other side of the front door. It’s a terrible picture, but the border is too wide to fit in a single frame, so it’ll have to do. This border is a source of frustration for me. The end closest to the front door is in almost full shade. The other end gets about 5-6 hours of blazing hot sun in the afternoons. Very tough conditions to get plants to thrive in such dissimilar conditions.
Below you can more plants I bought on sale in August. These will go in shadier spots of the border. In the clay pot you see two Brunnera ‘Sea Hearts’. If you look closely, you can see that the leaves are primarily silver, with green veining running through. Every thing I have read said that ‘Sea Hearts’ stands up to summer heat better than most variegated Brunneras. That silver foliage should help light up the shady recesses of the border.
The two darker plants are Ajuga ‘Bronze Beauty’. Ajuga is somewhat notorious for being a garden thug, and can take over a garden bed. I’m not too concerned (famous last words), because the area is a dry shade spot which will make it a little tougher for them to spread, and because they are going into a raised bed I’m hoping they won’t be able to be able to jump into other areas.
The Ajuga has blue flower spikes that bloom in spring, and the foliage stays green/bronze even in the deepest shade. It prefers moist soil, but mine will have to be a bit tougher than it would prefer.
Going back to the picture of the raised bed, there are three daylily’s planted in there that I don’t think are too happy about their light conditions. I’ll see how they do next summer, but if they look as anemic as they did this year, I’ll move them to someplace more to their liking. In their place, I may plant three more Japanese forest grasses.
Stay tuned.
Replacing the dead grasses
Finally, I’ve got three native ornamental grasses that need to replace the ones that died when I nearly killed all the plants in the waterwise front yard (see: https://www.mrvintageman.com/this-week-in-the-garden-oops-i-messed-up/).
Once again, I got these on sale in August. Seen here is one Panicum ‘Northwind’ switch grass, and two Little Bluestem ‘Standing Ovations”. I will make sure I pamper these babies next year to improve their chances of survival.
And that completes my plans for autumn. Well, I will be planting some spring flower bulbs is a couple of weeks. And I need to clean and oil my tools. Oh, and I should clean out the shed.
Sigh. No rest for the wicked, or for the gardener.
