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Fun & Flowery Mix from My Front Yard Garden

My sunny front yard garden is exuberant and full of color and life right now. I grow hundreds of different plants and it's always changing and evolving. My garden is a testing ground where I learn about and experiment with plants—trying out combinations, and practicing the art of gardening.

My garden is a major source of inspiration for the the plant combination ideas that I create for eGardenGo. The blowzy vignette pictured above inspired one of the newest plant combos on the eGardenGo site.

GARDEN HIGHLIGHTS

Plants and Garden Vignettes That Are Making Me Happy Today

Echinacea pallida, the epitome of understated, carefree elegance, is beautiful when backlit. It's a central feature in my little pollinator garden out front. This little niche in my garden gives me great joy. To get a good look at it and the plants that I use in it, watch this video.

This showy annual was the most asked-about plant during my recent open garden. Salpiglossis is a true party plant—super fun and the life of this vignette strutting its stuff in my front yard garden. This short-lived beauty is a flash in the pan. I don't grow a lot of annuals but yes, it's certainly fun while it lasts.

Pictured above: a fleeting color connection. Immensely pleasing, yet just a moment in time, with still more moments to follow when other plants come to the fore. One of the ways that I create continuity in my garden is bycreating color connections to unify and bind many plants into a cohesive whole. 

Calycanthus floridus 'Aphrodite' makes a dramatic statement in my south-side garden. This has been a vigorous, fast-growing shrub for me. It is typically a rounded, multi-stem shrub but in my small garden, I'm managing it a bit unconventionally. I've retained just a few of the major branches and I've limbed it up such that it acts like a small tree for me.

Clematis texensis 'Princess Diana' is one of many Clematis blooming in my garden today. She is a vigorous, floriferous, reliable, and showy vine! If you're interested in exploring lots of different varieties of Clematis to see which ones tickle your fancy, you might enjoy this video.

COMBOS INSPIRED BY MY GARDEN & OTHERS

The backbone of the eGardenGo website is its searchable database of plant combination ideas. There are multiple ways to use the tool. 

• Browse the plant database, find one that meets your criteria, then click through to get plant combination ideas that include it. If you can't find the particular plant you're looking for, search for something similar. For more tips on how to choose the best subs, read this blog post.

• Use the searchable directory of plant combinations to find one that is a match for your growing conditions and aesthetic desires. Then click through to learn about the individual plants included in the combination.

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