Front Garden

Front Yard Spring

 We have about as much happen to us with pictures as with the garden. This is last year's early spring of the front yard. I had a ton of more pictures when the yard was in full bloom.....but I have lost all of last years pictures somehow.....this is the third time I have lost a TON of pictures, but I'm not going to dwell on that upsetting fact.

Front garden Iris bed

So! Time to introduce the front garden, aka the front porch. Aside from the Irises everything you see was already planted here, when we bought the house. (In case you haven't figured it out yet, I fell in love with the yard and that is why I wanted to buy the house, lol.)

There were - emphasis on were - two huge gardenia bushes on each side of our front porch. Huge is an understatement. Massive! Any other big adjective you can throw in there. And, oh was their fragrance, heavenly! Their flowers gorgeous! Their leaves so shiny and dark - and I came along. :) Suddenly the buds dropped before they could bloom, the leaves turned black with some type of mold and the under part of the leaves was turning yellow! I was panicking. What had I done? Did my very presence turn all that was beautiful in my yard to dust?!

Front Yard Gardenia that survived

I began to read everything I could. I discovered the pesky little bug called white flies related to aphids. This pesky little insects populate in the absence of ladybugs and praying mantises, aka beneficial bugs. The bush protects itself with layers of what is called black mold, but this layer also blocks out the sun and if not treated will turn the leaves yellow from lack of sun. So I got out my garlic, soap, and aspirin spray. I put on gloves and rubbed leaf by leaf the mold off and sprayed the under leaves. For two long years!!!! I also hatched a daring plan. The biggest no, no in the gardenia world is transplanting. I decided to endeavor to transplant them right back into their holes. With my husband's truck we pulled them both out and I proceeded to provide them a high acidic environment of pine needs, epsom salt, and fresh garden soil. The instructions state to transplant very quickly if you must, and to not expose the bulb root too long, but to leave clumps of dirt to it. After transplanting, you are to pack down the dirt firmly so no air pockets appear. So we did. The instructions I had the hardest following was the fact you must, must cut the bush 3/4ths back so that it focuses on its root system.....well, I had an issue with this fact. Only leave 1/4th of the bush standing?! No way. After I did it to the one bush, it looked so dismal; I couldn't bear to cut back the other bush. What happened? It died. As you can see in the above picture, a bench replaces the lost Gardenia bush now.  So I have successfully transplanted one of the gardenias and it no longer has any black mold. It has tons of flowers, ect.  My next adventure is to propagate from the bush.

Aside from the Gardenia bushes, there are six Azalea bushes, a Hosta plant, Easter Lilies, Tiger Lilies, and Wandering Jew plants that came with the front garden. Some friends of ours came over one day with tons of Irises and I tried to fill in the empty places with those. The big stones are from our yard. The tiny stones are the most expensive price we have paid for any of the gardens yet! I will have to write that story next time because I am tired.

Front Garden Azalea bed