Are you the sunshine of my life?
Sometime ago (I can't remember anymore) I planted sunflower seeds in our front yard. Since I am NOT the gardener, and I assume less than half of what I plant will grow, I planted about 100 seeds from 5 different packs. Let me tell you, THEY GREW. Some of them are over 8 feet tall. And now as I look out my front window and see the flowers (and not people staring into the house) I realize that just like Christmas, soon they will be gone and it will all be over. And instead of enjoying how gorgeous they are, they make me melancholy. On the flip side, the tomatoes that have taken their own sweet time getting ready are about to kick off one heck of a season. We have about 8 tomato pants and so far have just been getting about one tomato a day. COME ONE BIG BOY! GIMME MY 'MATERS!
And now, the house progression from the front yard:
House entrance before we moved in one year ago.
Before the painters, still a year ago.
Midst of painters, primer coat applied.
All done. The house color changes throughout the day depending on the light. The big plant behind the sunflower stem is a tomato plant taking over the garden. If you click on the photo above, and look in the bottom of the front window, it's Mr. Cooper!
Front yard and house before we moved in a year ago.
Middle of painting, primer was on, sunflowers planted, but just barely sprouted...
Holy crap. You can't see the house anymore! This is the side where they went 8+ feet tall. And since I took this pic, there are twice as many...
6 comments:
Ah - I miss having my garden. I loved having sunflowers. They're so gloriously cheerful! And even after they die down you can save them and have the seeds and plant more or eat or feed birds.
It's wonderful.
Sunflowers last for over a month, especially when there's that many. A month of Christmas!
I have a black thumb so I never, ever try to plant anything. I can't even keep bamboo alive. When Tony and I bought our house he suggested that we take up all the sod in the front yard and buy some gravel and make it a Zen garden. At the time I laughed and said, "Right!" but now I wish we would have because it would totally piss off my bigoted, homophobic, narrow-minded neighbors. Jim, I think you and all your friends ought to come out here and we will have a big BBQ on my pathetic front lawn!
I still think a Zen garden in the front would be awesome!
It would be! That would be a cool idea.
We took out any semblance of a grass front yard ourselves as we live in a desert and oh yeah, I kill plants. But rather than a Zen garden, we put in what we are calling a French Garden. Center fountain with herbs and lavender surround. Gravel square around that. Then outer garden to grow tall things to keep prying eyes away. I think you can see that in one of the middle photos in the post.
Personally, I think a “scene” in your front yard is what you need! Perhaps a little faux hill then a stream with a pond. A little bridge to a gravel circle with a sitting area... All screened off with a thatched English country fence or thicket of shrubbery...
As for pissing off neighbors, you would be surprised how much they’d love the contingency of gay boys in your front yard! Everyone loves a party. They’d be more upset if we bought the property next door and stayed FOREVER...
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