Click on any of the thumbnails to enlarge

The layout for the front garden was very scientific in its design. We knew the window cleaner would need somewhere to put his ladder - hence the strategically placed square slabs. But the most important thing was that I needed to be able to tend to the garden most of the year without treading on the heavy clay soil. So starting from the large square I took a slow walk around the front garden, it must have looked very odd, to work out where to put the round stepping stone slabs. I could then reach all of the garden apart from two places near the kitchen window without treading on the soil.

Spring 1997. Well this is how it looked at the beginning of 1997, the blue blobs are purple crocus. It looked so bare that I wondered what madness possessed me the day I asked my hubby to dig it up, but it was a very rough and uneven lawn consisting of dandelions, thistles, bindweed and some very unpleasant prickly things that seemed superglued into the soil.

This was the summer of 1997 and it was still looking at bit bare, but at least I didn't have to lug the lawnmower around the houses. All the shrubs, except the Philadelphus 'Manteau Di Hermine', seemed to be enjoying the hot, dry conditions. The sun shines at the front of the house until about three in the afternoon.

Easter 1998. The garden is filling out now, the cornflowers got flattened by heavy rain and wind. I added a small hedge of thyme next to the paths in October, they were all transplanted from the back garden where they were unwanted self-seeders.

Winter 1998. I didn't get around to tidying up the front garden for the winter but seeing the golden colour of the Spirea japonica 'Shirobana' and the flowers on the Gaillardia Goblin I was glad that I didn't.

All the plants in the front garden are shrubs, perennials, bulbs or "half hardy annuals" which self seed. They have to be fairly tough to survive as the ground is heavy clay which is cold and wet in winter and baked hard in summer.

Bedding plants were used when the front garden was first dug but they needed too much TLC. What's the use of digging up the grass in the first place to reduce the amount of time spent tending the front and then having to spend every night out there watering? The fact is that I now spend the same time out there looking after the plants as I did cutting the grass but this is outweighed by the fact that tending plants (not watering) is much less stressful than mowing, it's very therapeutic.

The plants are nurtured through their first summer and, if they survive the rigours of the winter, they are fed, tidied up and left to get on with life. Most of them do survive, like the penstemons and osteospermums. It looks as if they are enjoying the light touch.

October 1999. The front garden was still going strong with sedums, fuchsias, gaillardias and chrysanthemums enjoying the autumn of 1999.

April 2000. This view of the front garden was taken by leaning out of the upstairs window. It was taken during the last week in April.

April 2000. The spring sunshine overpowering most of the flowers except the yellow of the wallflowers and the blue of the anemones.

April 2000. This is the third year that Queen of the Night tulips have survived my 'plant 'em and leave 'em to get on with it' routine.

June 2000. The Gaillardia in the top right of the picture kept flowering throughout the winter, it looked a bit rough by February but a short back'n'sides in March saw it back in flowering mode by May.

June 2000. This is the same upstairs view as I took in April but now taken in June, the light seems much softer now and the garden is full to almost overflowing. The polyanthus, anemones, crocuses, tulips, wallflowers, daffodils and choisyas have flowered and been replaced by verbascums, sweet williams, nigella, thyme, Califonian poppies, sweet rocket, marigolds, bergamot and others.

June 2001. This is the only photo taken of the front garden this year, by the end of August I managed to get in to dead head. I have problems with the cats flattening the plants while sunbathing, the ground's baked solid out the front by this time of year so they cant do anything else.

I have now learnt which plants thrive out in the front garden and those that look good are the plants with pure colours, pale colours just look washed out.

Eventually I am going to replace the thyme edging with box because the thyme is very lax in its growth, even though I clip it regularly, it just doesn't do the job I want it to do.

Back to Main Page

E-mail me at: snowdrop666@btinternet.com