The Garden Guy’s front yard is a little over a half-acre with a lot of trees.
Grouping the trees into islands or pockets of non-mow areas helped develop planting opportunities.

Picking Your Pockets - For a Large Front Yard
 

The Garden Guy and Mrs. Jan moved to the present house in the spring of 2019. Ideas flowed like a waterfall for backyard plantings, while the front yard was daunting, for one big reason. It is over a half-acre with a steep upward slope toward the home.

The Garden Guy was raised in west Texas where trees were the occasional mesquite. Here in west Georgia, I felt like I was in a forest. Thankfully in between Texas and Georgia I got a lot of boots on the ground training while working as a Horticulture Specialist for Mississippi State University.

Sometimes it can be hard for the preacher to take his own advice but in this case the old horticulturist remembered his lectures on taking the landscape modification in bite sized chunks. That reduces the stress on the mind and on the pocketbook, after all The Garden Guy is basically retired and on a fixed budget.

The first objective was to reduce turf area as much as possible by clustering trees in islands, pockets and I suppose expansive sweeps or drifts. This eliminated turf care here and opened up a sea of opportunity for dogwoods, Bloom-a-Thon and Perfecto Mundo azaleas, hydrangeas, Double Play flowering quince, Yin and Yang viburnums and my prized Fluffy gold conifers. But the sunny side of the islands opened the door to Pugster buddleia, Luscious lantanas, Color Coded coneflowers, and Pyromania red hot pokers. 

Behind these I have been able to incorporate Rockin salvias. On more than one occasion I have stood in my backyard and uttered where are my hummingbirds? You guessed it they were off frolicking in the front or side yards which I’ll tell you about in another newsletter.

With such a large forested front yard it has at times been like, where is the front door. Here and at several of my other homes over the years you quickly realize this is the most important area to have a pocket of welcoming color.

Here I have created a little dazzle with Luscious Royale Cosmo lantana, Angelface angelonia and Sunstar Pentas. There are also four self-watering AquaPots that have more of the gorgeous colored conifers like Fluffy and Polar Gold arborvitaes.

The sunny perimeters of the pockets allowed for color to be incorporated like these ColorCoded, Price is White and Frankly Scarlet coneflowers.

In this pocket with a sunny afternoon disposition the new ColorBlaze Wicked Hot coleus and golden Fluffy arborvitae create a stunning contrast

The Christmas tree look of the arborvitae are picturesque on their own, the addition of Superbells Grape Punch, Tangerine Punch and Black Currant Punch have added the holy wow. The perfect finishing touch to the containers however was the addition of Dolce Appletini heucheras. So many in my area still down understand the effectiveness of heucheras as partners in containers.

The last addition, and perhaps unexpected for a front door pocket planting was a glazed blue bird bath. The shiny blue partnered with red and white AquaPots is just a little added magic. I still spend most of my time out back and then it hits me, I know where my hummingbirds and butterflies are, they are playing in the front yard! Follow me on Facebook @NormanWinterTheGardenGuy for more photos and garden inspiration.

As the sun sets on one of the non-mow pockets, the backlit azaleas and glistening glossy leaves creates a most magical moment.

The colorful pocket planting by the front door tells visitors they are welcome. Here Sunstar Pentas, Angelface Super White angelonias combine with self-watering AquaPots filled with golden conifers, Superbells Punch varieties and Dolce Appletini heuchera.