Porch & front yard plants

[craftylittlemonkey]

When we bought this house 2 & a half years ago the tiny front yard was a patch of grass that was a real PITA to mow. We dug it all out & put in rocks collected from the backyard, tall grasses & succulents. Since then we've had the Japanese red maple manicured, dug out a big picker bush & a flowering quince, transplanted hostas & coral bells, & dragged home a big tree trunk that's now embedded with succulents & moss. We'd still like to plant some honeysuckle at the corners of the porch & move a layer of nicer stones from the backyard but that will happen later this summer.
The past little while I've been busy making up hanging & standing planters & moving our 2 smallest garden boxes & dirt to the front. Today I filled them with plants & mulch, exciting!


There are 2 of these planters on the steps.


And 2 hanging baskets.


Here's what's inside those.


I'm so excited for a couple months from now when everything is lush & full. Yay, summer!

[BeaG]

It looks lovely!
I especially love the hanging baskets.
And I appreciate the amount of work that has gone into that little garden already.

[craftylittlemonkey]

Thank you BeaG   It is so much work to get it just so but I'm hoping it will mostly maintain itself once it is established.
We got some more succulents & cactus soil yesterday. I chose specimens with many little shoots & babies which are now planted in every rocky nook or cranny & all over the tree stump. I'm hoping they will flourish and spread all over the place.

[BeaG]

It will look wonderful once they have spread out!
I've never had them in my garden, but I think they are quite hardy and not sensitive to any kind of extreme weather.

[TheMistressT]

It's getting all verdant up in your place!

[craftylittlemonkey]

It is! Despite having taken out the lawn, I think it's going to be very lush and green.

Today I transplanted some more Sempervivum (Hen and Chicks) and Sedum (Stonecrop) varieties from a neighbour as well as a periwinkle from the back yard and the last potted sedum we brought home from the garden centre. The periwinkle is not native and can be aggressive and invasive but it's well contained in the rocky patch that is our yard, it happens to love being planted in rocks too. It sends out creepers with shallow roots and will spread and cover lots of space. I have one more small pot of Hen and Chicks to find a spot for.

Here is the front of the house from two angles. I am quite pleased with all this, it's the first time I've ever done any decorative planting.


The grasses and those low bunches of green (black eyed susan and echinacea) will grow really tall and leave seeds heads for the birds all winter.


And I put the houseplants out onto the front porch. The loved this last year. I trimmed the Pothos but will have to do some more cutting back at the end of the season and give a few plants away, they are all getting too big to fit inside the house!

[kittykill]

That porch/sun room is wonderful!

[craftylittlemonkey]

Thank you! You are invited over for drinks any time .
We had the tiniest little porch at our last place but we sat out on it as often as possible. We could rest our feet on the railing from our seats haha. The big, beautiful porch here was a selling point for sure.
Today I planted some ivy & cosmos, put up the sweetest flower-shaped glass birdbath & gave a few cuttings to a friend. I feel so gardeny!