Happy Monday GPODers!
Even when we’ve seen a garden a few times, I’m never surprised to find that there are a selection of plants or whole areas that we still haven’t seen before—it seems like every gardener has more secret plant talents up their sleeve that they wait to reveal. Bonnie Phipps Moninger in Boulder, Colorado (Zone 4/5) has already shared her stunning backyard garden several times in the past (Check out those submissions, here: November in Colorado, The North Side of Bonnie’s Colorful Colorado Garden, Bonnie Celebrates Flowers in Colorado, The Birth of Bonnie’s Flower Garden, Part 1 and Part 2), but today she’s finally lifting the curtain on gardens she has yet to share with the blog. While front and side yards often don’t get the same level of attention and detail as the more private spaces in the back of properties, Bonnie has brought the same level of color and creativity to every inch of her landscape.
Hello, I’ve just started planning the new additions and changes to my garden for spring, and I’ve been looking at pictures of my garden from the past. You’ve seen pictures of my backyard, but not the front and side yard – so here they are, I hope you enjoy them.
For our front garden, I worked with Nancy Loving and her landscape company back in 2017 to create a garden with a Japanese feel. I had a clear idea of what I wanted, and Nancy was great to work with. I wanted a large berm covered with golden creeping jenny (Lysimachia nummularia ‘Aurea’, Zones 3–8) ground cover with a path going through it, and not too many other plants. To me, the creeping jenny is the star of the show. It stays that vibrant yellow all season. I use it everywhere in my garden. It will take over other plants, so it’s best to put it in areas where it can expand. I also wanted Japanese statues and a lot of large-ish rocks that I hand-selected. I wanted a path that led past the blue spruce and over a dry riverbed (which they constructed), continuing along the side of the house. I didn’t have help with the side yard—that’s a work in progress, as actually, the whole garden is.
Golden creeping jenny is the star of the show and helps to dictate the rest of the color palette in Bonnie’s vibrant front garden. This is such a refreshing departure from the expanse of lawn stand of green shrubs that are all too common in many front yards.
Another angle of the front. You can see the two weeping spruce (Picea abies ‘Pendula’, Zones 2–8) in the middle of the photo. One is bending over and the other one stayed upright! You never know with those!
The path in front of the spruce leads all the way around to the back side of the garden.
The path continues and crosses the dry river bed, which is hard to see in this pic. The yellow frilly plant on the left is actually a spirea, called Mellow Yellow (Spiraea thunbergii ‘Ogon’, Zones 4–8). You can see another berm (top right) covered in creeping jenny.
Looking to the left from the path, under the blue spruce, there’s a group of hostas and brunneras I planted two years ago. They are doing well under the spruce tree! Yeah! There are also geraniums and Japanese forest grass (Hakonechloa macra, Zones 5–9).
A view looking toward the front yard from the side yard area. The second creeping jenny berm shows prominently here.
Looking toward the side yard to the right, and the patio on the upper left. The north-facing Green Mountain boxwoods (Buxus ‘Green Mountain’, Zones 4–9) seem to do well in this low-light side yard. The gravel path winds around to the back of the house to more planting areas.
A view of part of the side yard. Golden groundsel (Packera aurea, Zones 3–8), ligularias, brunnera, and Purple Dragon lamium (Lamium maculatum ‘Purple Dragon’, Zones 4–9) do well here.
A view from our south patio. Nothing wants to grow against the house in this area. I’ve tried many different plants. The light is pretty low when the tree leaves are out. I tried boxwoods, but the light in the winter was too harsh. Now I’m experimenting with these small shrubs (??) which are in their second season. I divided the brunneras (on the left) last fall—hopefully they will be okay this coming season.
This is my front entryway—I’m still working on it. I keep adding plants to see what will grow. It’s a hard spot with inconsistent light levels. It’s under a pine tree that has been limbed way up.
Thanks for viewing my garden!
And thank you for sharing your garden with us again, Bonnie! From the photos we have already seen of your lush and lively back gardens, it is no surprise that the front and sides of your property are just as vibrant and captivating.
Let the countdown to spring commence! As we inch closer and closer to spring color, lets celebrate the season by looking back on some highlights from previous years. Flip through your folders, scroll through that camera roll and find some photos that show the best spring scenes your garden has to offer, then follow the NEW directions below to submit your photos to Garden Photo of the Day!
We want to see YOUR garden!
Have photos to share? We’d love to see your garden, a particular collection of plants you love, or a wonderful garden you had the chance to visit!
To submit, fill out the Garden Photo of the Day Submission Form.
You can also send 5–10 photos to [email protected] along with some information about the plants in the pictures and where you took the photos. We’d love to hear where you are located, how long you’ve been gardening, successes you are proud of, failures you learned from, hopes for the future, favorite plants, or funny stories from your garden.
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