Leslie Patten Books: Wild Places, Sacred Spaces

Front entrance view

The small entrance garden is now finished.  (See Posts 1 and 2)   I moved around several existing plants.  I used the existing Mondo grass as fillers and bought 20 more one gallon plants, which we divided to fill even more space.  The garden look good even though it was just installed.  Within a few years the Yuletide Camellia by the front door view will grow upright and hide the fence but not block the beautiful Sangu Kaku maple.

Looking towards the owners side

View from front door. Maple will leaf out; Camellia will grow upright to cover the fence

The trick with the side above was not to have plants look like they are marching in a line against the fence.  There is not much depth there, but enough.  The Daphne at the base of the tree is set forward to the Camellia, as are the red-leafed azaleas.  The art features also help break it up.  Its hard to see, but there are some dabs here and there of different textural low plants to break up the monotony of the mondo grass groundcover.  Some of these are variegated white, other are red leafed oaxalis.  But don’t get too busy or you risk just a confusing mass that the eye doesn’t know how to integrate.

The tenants side next to the fence is more constraining as its very narrow.  I used a Camellia s. that has more flexible branches and is easily espaliered.  We’ll guide that over time to grow against the fence and outward.  One way to achieve that is to use eye screws with thin wire into the fence (more invisible) so you have something to tie the branches to rather than a loud visible trellis.  Over time the branches thicken up and will hold their position naturally.

Tree to the front right will eventually be removed

Fountain interrupts small wall for an artistic break

Always scope around, use what you can on the property, be creative.   You might find some old garden art you can use, good looking boulders, or useable plants.   Here’s how we used a rotten stump.  Eventually the plants in front will spill over and a 3′ variegated Ligularia is planting in a pocket behind that will peek around.  A Japanese Felt Fern at the base (Pyrrosia) will enjoy climbing up the tree ferns stump.  Tree ferns like their trunk wet so we’ll spray this area.

We moved the mature tree fern into this existing rotting stump

Filed under: Gardening | Tagged: Entry gardens, Small gardens |