A Changing Front Yard

In 2006 our front yard looked like this:


Now, after some expense, much toil, and time to grow, it looks like this:



It used to be that I hardly ever looked out my front window because I would only be looking at a parking pad or our truck. Now the Venus dogwood is in full bloom and I have all kinds of treasured plants tucked here and there and I spend lots of time gazing out the window, enjoying what I see and trying to decide what new plants to add. Also in front, although not as attractive, is my experiment at straw bale gardening (I explained it in a post last fall). It does take a lot of water as other people had warned. It was unusually hot here last week. It felt more like Hawaii than Seattle and I watered three times. The biggest surprise is the lettuce that is thriving in front of the bales. I planted it as an afterthought. We have had two or three salads off of it already! In the bales are two pepper plants, a tomato and a pumpkin plant, also a few bachelor buttons and some beets.