Garden Angst: The Front Yard in Mid-July, 2012

I'm fairly happy with the front yard. There also a wide swath of pumpkin-colored daylilies in the hellstrip making it feel sort of like a three ring circus in mid-July.

In my front yard and typically the first impression visitors have of my garden is hostas. When the Master gardeners visited, their first comment was, "Oh, you're into hosta." To which I had to reply, that I really wasn't, but grass just doesn't grow there under the big white pine and in the shade of the houses on the north side of my house, in the sand.

Where I have a bit more sun I try and grow daylilies, because they will bloom in the sun, or shade; but really all of you reading this, you are short-changing the beauty of the daylilies by growing them in the shade. The corner with the 'Red Jade' crab is the farthest point from my hose connection. It is the hardest to water.

As my lot has street and alley on three sides, my gardening has always been about problem solving, defining the perimeter, and adding privacy.

This little spot looks a lot better in spring and fall. The color combos with sedum 'Matrona', the blue balllon flowers, coneflowers, filapendula, valerian, black Austrina pine just seems very dark. There's an apricot tree here, too, you can't see. I think the plants there probably aren't going anywhere, but there must be a way to "lighten it up". Anyone?

This is the long border, which I have been re-digging the last few days. As you can see the middle of July is definitely a down time for the long border. At one point, it had waves upon waves of bloom. Now the show is early spring and then late summer and early fall. I'm not sure what happened.

I painted the two trellis in this area green apple and have planted a lot more liatris as they bloom then. This just seems a sea of green and I am loath to plant out bedding annuals for a shot of color. It seems like I need some sort of broad, large leaved plant for some sort of focal point. I've thought of doing a swath of native beebalm and Jacob Kline mixed and have already divided and spread out a pale yellow daylily. (This is the area in my last post with the shovel stuck in it!)

Thoughts?