where the sun don't shine

ok, so a few weeks ago i shared the progress we've made in our backyard since we moved into our house a year ago...
but sadly i can't share the same kind of results for our front yard.

it's been a problem area from the start.

we have 3 ginormous trees in the front.
which i love.
but with that much shade happening, and with tree roots all over the place, it's not the ideal situation for gardening.

when we moved in, there were only some squared off boxwoods and a few little dianthus sprinkled around there.

so i don't really have a before and after yet for you...that might take awhile...but there are a few small achievements in the yard that make me happy.

one of them is the coleus.
mostly because i grew them from seeds this spring!

they actually seem to do pretty well in the deep shade, and they add a bit of color in an area where it's hard to get much out of flowers or anything.
notice the ferns behind them...i've been hoping to get those to take off in the shade too.


another one of my favorites are the cast iron plants. not much can survive in the shade and bad soil, but someone told me to try some cast iron plants. their toughness is true to the name. they were a beast to find, but then one day they randomly showed up at home depot for super cheap. gotta love it.


in the fall i ripped out a couple of the boxwoods and replaced them with something a little more exotic looking...fatsia and aurelia. they're still pretty tiny, but they should grow into some decent sized shrubs.


then i added a couple of giant stain glass hostas just today. i have a few little dwarf ones in the yard that i grew from root balls, but i've had my eye out for some of these guys ever since i ran across some bush sized ones on a trip to missouri a few months ago. i didn't even know hostas could get so big.

but anyways, these guys were on super duper clearance, thanks to this awful heat. i guess no one wants to plant anything when its 106 outside.
but i figured for a couple bucks i could take the risk, and just make sure they get plenty of water and love the next few weeks.

plus they're kind of bright and cheery in such a dark shaded area.
and those flowers? i think i'm in love.

so anyways, there's a peek at our little garden where the sun doesn't shine.
hopefully it will have a lot more to show for itself by next summer.
perhaps this post should have been called 'plants i haven't been able to kill yet.' :P

ok so this is embarrassing, and it may be many many years down the road...once i'm an old retired grandma...but i have a secret aspiration of winning yard of the month in our neighborhood.

i think i have a lot to learn, and that my plants have a whole lot of growing to do before that happens too. but who knows?!

speaking of, either my neighborhood association has a sense of humor, or some teenage kids do, because i saw the much coveted 'yard of the month' since sitting proudly in the lot of a house that was being leveled down the road. haha.


gotta love it.