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Garden Tour: The Front Foundation Garden

September 15th, 2012

The front foundation garden was the first area I started to tackle when we moved here 10 years ago. It was planted with things that wouldn’t have survived in that bed. The rhododendrons in that bed were given to my parents and I replaced them with a few plants, most of which are long since gone.

I started by adding lots of chicken manure, leaf mold and compost for several years. Then I dig out all the big rocks and added more humus. After a few years, I decided it was time to plant a few things. This garden has evolved over time, just like my skills as a gardener. If I was starting this bed from scratch I’d do things a little differently.


Overall, I really like this flowerbed, it contains a mix of things that bloom throughout the seasons. Lots of spring flowering bulbs from February through April. It’s filled with peonies, hollyhocks, hydrangeas, catmint and other flowering beauties during the summer. In the fall there’s a beautiful ‘Pinky Winky’ hydrangea and a few balloon flowers that hang on for a last showing of color. It could use an evergreen shrub or two (like a boxwood) to give it a little more structure in the winter.


There are also lots of edibles; chives, fennel, asparagus, kale, blueberries, tomatoes, squash, cabbage and whatever other edibles I can tuck into empty spots.



My favorite time to view this flowerbed is in lat June when the ‘Annabelle’ hydrangea is at it’s best. There’s just something so wonderful about this original garden. It’s the first garden I started working on 10 years ago and it shows.

How old is your oldest garden?

Chiot’s Run Garden Tour
The Middle Garden
The Side Garden
The Front Hillside Garden
Mr Chiot’s Mailbox Garden
Garden Tour: The Front Garden

One Comment to “Garden Tour: The Front Foundation Garden”
  1. Deb on September 16, 2012 at 9:59 am

    Looks lovely. I don’t know this structure stuff about grdening. In my opinion it needs to be random so it doesn’t look like it’s structured. More natural you might say. I think yours is great with all you’ve did over the years. I hope you sell your place but after all you’ve did there’s no way I’d want to move. it’s like you like it. According to the standards you mentioned by the time we got done on our present place we’d be in a mountain of debt. I much prefer finding a place that needs work and doing it MY way not the way the previous owners fixed it up just so it would sell. Always good to buy “fixer-uppers” and work on stuff as you have time and money, so there’s less debt just getting into a house. Your gardens are all alovely. I have no structure. Mine is ‘that plant looks good there’ and that’s where it goes and I haven’t had any bad placements. Have a good weekend.

    Reply to Deb's comment

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This is a daily journal of my efforts to cultivate a more simple life, through local eating, gardening and so many other things. We used to live in a small suburban neighborhood Ohio but moved to 153 acres in Liberty, Maine in 2012.

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