Front Garden Report 2026- #3

The Front Garden is turning out so amazing! I have a lot to share.

First is the general view of the west side. This never fails to make me smile.

And of one part of the east side. I had to take a picture of either the part in sun or shade this afternoon. The shaded part only has greenery right now since the blue Globe Bellflowers finished blooming, so here is the part that has afternoon sun.

There is quite a lot to talk about right now. Let's start with Astilbe. I have one pink one and three white ones. These were some of the plants that cost me 10¢ each a couple of years ago, so I can't complain. But despite being where they should be happy, I've never had much luck getting Astilbe to thrive. I'm thinking about replacing them with other things if I find something I like better. They are OK, but they should be bigger and fuller.

The pink one is 'Rheinland.'

And the white one is 'Bridal Veil.'

I have one new hosta here. Betsy gave me a multi-clump of 'Hacksaw,' which is fun with narrow scalloped leaves. (Small Halcyon behind it- I just moved several of those this spring too)

And speaking of hosta- the 'Tiny Tears' are in full bloom now. A whole lot of this bed is edged with it.

I'm still trying to get this patch of white Lamium (Deadnettle) to fill in better. As you can barely see, it has white flowers too, although I'm much more interested in the white foliage.

Finally for today, the 'Landini' lily bulbs I bought on closeout at the end of 2024 are really looking great! I thought these would be more maroon based on the pictures, instead of the almost candy-apple red. In fact, most of the pictures of it on-line are much deeper- from maroon almost to black. It's possible they aren't getting quite enough sun as they are in almost total shade. Nevertheless, I really like these.

And the flowers are huge!

I've been working sporadically at putting a broken brick edging around this garden to make it a little easier to mow around, so I don't have to do as much hand trimming. You can see the Seven Sisters Rose in this shot.

There are still things that need to be moved around, and one section is pretty much a "weed patch" of bellflower and dwarf Solomon's seal. I'll continue to work on replacing some of that with other things. Additional plans for this year are to buy one Heucherella I want, but most of my upcoming plant purchases will have to do with the Moon Garden.

Here's a news flash! I was outside just after dark last night and saw... FIREFLIES! I don't know when the last time was that I saw any here.

In other news: I edited, walked a mile on the road, did some housecleaning including getting some of the recycling ready to take to where it has to go. My special hosta came today. Stay tuned. It came bare-root, but looking very healthy. It's in a pot and should be nice and perky in a couple of days.

Humidity not too terrible, so I kept moving pretty well.

Miles walked in 2026: 196.1

See Front Garden Report 2026- #2