My New Front Garden

My sister, Erin, is the new commercial horticulture agent in Jacksonville. Luckily for me, she's pretty handy with landscape design. I've been letting my free plants sit for more than a week because I never know where to put plants so that they look nice. She was here on Saturday for a graduation party for the other sister, Alli, and was nice enough to place plants for me. I've now got a nice, filled in bed. I planted lots of zinnia and lantana, some geraniums, and a few duranta and elephant ears. I also had a few extra plants such as sweet potato vine, basil, vincas, and some other stuff. I also have two hibiscus and a mandevilla that I planted in pots. I wasn't sure where I wanted to put those.

Here's the front bed with mostly zinnias in it. The elephant ears also went in here. There are two varieties of elephant ears. One is a black magic, maybe? The plants aren't labeled great when we get them, so I usually have to have one of the horticulturists help me identify them. You can also see the amaryllis planted close to the porch. It's also on the other side of the porch. Most of those bulbs are free from Tom's neighbor. I love free plants.


This is the lantana bed. I had planted lantana last year (again freebies!) that had frozen back. They've come back nicely and we've planted the many other different colored lantanas around them. You can also see the Japanese magnolia that's leafed out nicely.


This is the side of the house garden. It looks like there are mostly geraniums planted here, but there's also duranta and plumbago. The small crape myrtle was from my mom's yard last year. And, we planted vinca underneath it. Notice that we didn't put anything too close to the fence. This is preventive Tebow planting so that he can't reach through and eat it.


I'm very happy with the way these have turned out. And, greatly appreciate having all the help from family and friends who have much more gardening experience than I. They're pretty patient with me and tell me the same things every year at the same time. Thanks guys!