Little front yard no grass!

I have a beautiful back yard but the front yard I can't seem to get anything to grow but weeds. It only gets sun about 4hrs a day. And the three big trees seem to be drinking all of the water. Is there something I can do besides planting grass that would look nice in the front yard? The yard is 51FT?12FT

This message was edited Jun 5, 2007 12:43 AM

You could grow a shade garden, I've had trouble with growing lawn as well in a similar type of environment. The only way to get a lawn to grow, is to allow the grass to grow higher than normal so it can collect more sunlight, it needs a lot of moisture and a lot of nutrients. It's a lot of work to try to maintain a lawn in shade, so I don't recommend it.

I'd recommend you turn it all into a shade garden. Plants for shade are well adapted for growing around and under trees. They have large leaves to collect what little light is available and usually have small or insignificant flowers with a short bloom time. It takes a lot of energy to create flowers & seeds and there isn't a lot of energy under trees so shade plants produce minimal or insignificant flowers to save energy. A shade garden is about texture, you depend on the plants leaves, their size, shape, and color and not much on their flowers.

Here's an inexpensive easy care shade garden for $95 that's a good start which fills in 1/2 of your area, then get yourself some ferns and hosta and other shade loving plants and shrubs that you like for the other 1/2.
http://www.bluestoneperennials.com/b/bp/specials.html?id=K2UkPhp7


This message was edited Jun 5, 2007 9:23 AM

Marshmellow, Thank you so much for your advise. I really like leafage around my yard and that sounds like I could really have fun with it. Is there any certain way I should put them as far as heights or color. Or do I just have fun creating whatever looks nice? This will be a first for me.

sweetpees,
What I do when I'm creating a new garden is buy pretty much everything I think I want in it first. Then I start sitting the plants (while still in their pots) in various arrangements to see what looks good to me. I used to just try to visualize it all in my head but always ended up digging plants up and rearranging them which is frustrating, time comsuming, and not very good for the plants. Good luck and I'm sure you will have fun.

Well, first off find a "look" you like. First, the backbone I feel of any shade Garden is the Hosta which comes in any number of colors and leaf configurations. Huechera is also a good choice. Then, If you want a cottage look that's a bit whimsical add Columbines, Astilbe, Bleeding Heart, and you may even be able to get away with a white Echinacea. If you want a "woods" look add Ferns, more Hosta, Lilly of the Valley (if it's not invasive where you live), and lilly's. Usually the backbone of any shade garden is the Hosta, they're so versatile and beautiful even a shade garden of nothing but Hosta is a sight to behold.

Shade casts a blue tint to everything in it so, plants with white leaves or flowers put in shade the white will be baby blue, yellow flowers will be slightly lime-green, plants with bright leaves will be darker, dark leaved plants will be lost. I like to stick to bright foliage and flowers in the shade garden.

Your eyes are drawn to brighter areas, so try to put more "brighter" plants towards the middle, and darker ones at the edges. That will keep the eyes always being pulled towards the middle. I said "most" you must have a few "mistakes" thrown in for it to look natural so go ahead and throw in a couple dark ones in the middle and light ones on the sides.

When planting, think of balance. Normally, a bush on one side of a bed is balanced by several medium sized perennials on the other side. If you could put a scale under visual balance, it would all balance out. Some Hosta's I'd say are like bushes, if you put a big, bold leafed one (I recommend it) on one side make sure you put several medium sized plants on the other side of the bed to balance it visually. I also like to surround Hosta's with thin leafed lillies and ferns (I love Japanese painted fern) to help offset their big bold leaves.

Don't group too many big leafed hosta's together, you usually surround one big leafed Hosta with several small fine leafed plants to help soften it.

Make sure you have access to the beds, you will need paths and such. Most importantly, nothing's written in stone so anything you find you don't like you can dig them up in Spring and move them.

This message was edited Jun 6, 2007 11:37 AM

NatureLover 1950 and Marshmellow, Thank you so much for your advise! now all I have to do is get started. I will have to keep you informed as to my success. I told my husband about your suggestions and he thought it all sounded real good. I never realized that the shade would affect the color of the flowers. That was also a great idea to set the pots in place first to see if I like their arrangment. Thanks again.

You are so welcome. And please do keep us posted on your progress--post pictures if you can. I really enjoy working in my own gardens but also enjoy having others share theirs with me.