Before and after

I tackled the front bed at the condo today. It was very very dry, it's heavy clay, and most of it was bare soil. There was a lot of ivy that has crept in from the neighbour's bed, and some sad sad euonymous with only one branch producing leaves. There are a couple of pretty shrubs (varieties of viburnum, I am guessing), but they were also ovewhelmed by a mugo pine that had grown out of control.

Here's the "before".



I planted annuals, and there aren't a lot of choices for shade annuals that flower. I don't want to just put in a hosta bed like all the neighbours. I had already transplanted some lammium, which we will let grow to fill in around the tree trunk.

So I planted a row of dark purple and green coleus beside the walk. A large coral coloured begonia in the middle of the bed. Surrounding that, a ring of double impatiens, also coral. They look like tiny roses. A cluster of fuschias. They were all mixed up at the garden centre, with any luck, they will be coral pink, and fuschia (of course) so they match the impatiens and also the coleus. And then, around the base of the tree, a bunch of pretty periwinkle coloured browallia.

I tried to get a variety of colour in the foliage as well as the flower, in case the shade makes them just grow leaves.

Here's the "after" picture. Just planted. I think it looks better, even if its just because there are plants instead of dirt.



Here's another view.