View through the front door

I like to encourage folks to think about the views from their windows and front doors, as they're planning their gardens and landscapes (in programs that I do in my work).

In spite of it being 'low-maintenance,' we weren't happy with just mulch and stone outside our front door in our mountain house. (No green welcome and nothing to check, enjoy, and tend....Hrrmph, is what we thought.)

front before raised beds (after planting of sedums)

So we started planting in earnest a year and a half ago.

I'm so enjoying the view this evening out the front door.  The sunny meadow border in front has taken its spring form, with early-flowering Penstemon digitalis (Husker's Red) is surrounded by Liatris, Eurybia (Aster), Penstemon, Helianthus, and Vernonia (Ironweed) vegetative shoots.

front door view in the mountains

It's so lovely to see the transformation.  It wasn't difficult to do, at all, and reflects a couple of years of growth.  And my gardening companion is wanting to show me his 'before dinner' efforts shortly (while I've been posting!)

This post from last spring provides a marker for the development of the sedum bed, as it's been developing (here it's in the lower part of our view through the door).  We enjoy this bed year-round; some of the species are flowering now, adding another aspect to the diversity of green foliage.

sedum bed from front path

And the developing garden in the mountains gives us happy weekend visits and summertime puttering.

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Front door views

I never thought about taking a picture from our front steps when we moved in 15 years ago.

This is a view (from 1994) looking down from farther right.

My gardening companion starting to plant

There wasn't much to see, except a few large old trees, lawn, and a straight row of planted trees (Magnolia, dogwood, white pine, crepe myrtle). Red tips had been planted along the front, next to the road, and they were already in decline when we came. Happily, we volunteered their removal when the City put in a bike path.

But now, it's quite nice to look out through the front door,

step out onto the front steps,

and look down towards the front path I put in a couple of years ago.

The meadow (that's being edited) doesn't look too bad, with the least attractive blackened stalks removed.

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