Around the Yard - Early Sept 2013 - Entry Beds

And we continue on with the tour of the yard. Next we will look at the entry walkway beds. I don't really have a reason why I'm jumping to this area (actually, I do - it's because the names were next in the list of photos).

Walking up to the front door, the pathway can be pretty overgrown at times - the Gregg's Mistflower and Lantana (both on the left) like to spill over a lot.  And the Culinary Ginger (in the pot), always grows like a little kid's chives experiment.  In front of the ginger, succulent pots do most of the heavy lifting for interest since the Society Garlic and Dwarf Petunias all end up looking pretty sad.  You'd never know it, but there's also passionvine along the right side - the caterpillars keep it pretty mowed down (most of the time, there are only little 6" twigs of it sticking up)

Under the front windows, I have a bed of Artemisia which has a Pam's Pink Turk's Cap as well as a Chile Pequin, and a tiny Pale Pavonia plant along the front edge.  The Chile Pequin is in more shade than it would like, so it doesn't set out a whole bunch of peppers, and I tend to leave them for the birds anyhow.  The avocado tree which I grew from a pit is in the pot to the right.  I started it in 2005, and it's been an outside only plant for the last 2 winters (though it will occasionally be pulled to be right under the light and wrapped in blankets if the weather warrants).