The Parking Strip: 5/2/16

I headed back down to the sidewalk with the camera again.  I was given a rose from a neighbor friend, and it ended up down in the parking strip.  Not that there was even remotely any room left, but I crammed it in.  I couldn't tell what color it was gonna be from the tight buds, but it has since opened and revealed itself to be pink.  And it smells delicious.

It had opened up today, so I ran down to take more pics.

I needed another rose like I need another hole in my head, but look at her.

She has a volunteer Spiderwort at her feet.

I was asked by a regular reader to show what the front looks like as a whole.

I told her it pretty much just looks like a jungle.

The fence blocks everything except the big shrubs, and the big shrubs block the house, but I figured I'd give it a shot and snap a few pulled back photos.

Here we are from the bottom of the driveway.

The Snow In Summer outside the fence is blooming now.

From the street, still on the driveway end.

Our resident tree hugger.

Looking over the fence, into the front.

It would look much nicer without 500 sticks poking up outta the ground.

The Lilac needs another whack job.

Speaking of whack jobs, I went after the ugly potted Maple with the loppers.

I took the whole top off.

We'll see what happens.

Back outside the fence, the cute little yellow Corydalis is starting to bloom.

This plant showed up in the parking strip two years ago, and now it's everywhere.

Good thing I like it.

This one came up at the base of a Campion, which has also just started to bloom.

Okay, back to the pulled back shots, here we are from the neighbor's yard, across the street.

 If I were doing it again, when we initially took out the lawn and put the fence in, I wish we would have created a path from the sidewalk to the front door, with stairs down and a gate.

Our neighbors did that and it looks really nice.

They had to put in a pretty substantial rock retaining wall, though, to level out the top half, and there's no way we could have spent that kinda money.

We probably could have done it without the big wall, but at the time, I didn't even think about it.

There's a gate and a path from the driveway that goes to the front door, and that's just how it's always been.  We also put a gate on the other side, that is accessed from the next door neighbor's driveway, right past the big ol' Weigela.

I know it's hard to believe, looking at what I end up with, but I do prefer a tidier, more "landscaped" front yard.

My dream, outside of the farmhouse on property, is to have a front yard that's level with the sidewalk.

With pretty green lawn and tidy perennial beds.

Instead, I took out every lick of grass to cram in as much as I could because I'm a plantoholic.

I look at these photos and see all the things I want to change.

Ha!

Annnd, back to some closer shots, this is back on our sidewalk, looking across the other way.

My Geum is starting to bloom.

For whatever reason, I allow red down here.

In general, I don't gravitate toward red flowers.

The Peony buds are opening now, too.

This is a piece of the one that was in the backyard when I bought the house.

The Allium are officially in full bloom.
I seriously love them.

The Linaria, that showed up last year, has spread its seed.

I really love it and am happy it found its way to my house.

The Amsonia is just barely starting to show color.

And looky there, I have a visitor.

A welcome one at that.

I was told by someone this weekend that the 'Hot Lips' Salvia starts getting white later in the season.

So there ya go, mystery solved.

And last, one of the very first plants I put in down here when I first took out the sod.

Rock Rose, aka, Cistus.

I spy another visitor.

We're movin' and groovin' now.

I was happy to get a couple sunny days to be outside, but now I need the rain to come back so I can work on the train wreck inside.

Ignoring laundry for a week is never a good idea.

Tata for now.