The Center Island
Unfortunately I don't have a complete set of pictures of this monstrosity from when we first purchased the house. It's a large oval "island" smack in the middle of the front yard, overgrown with all sorts of shrubs and perennials. I'm sure it looked great when it was first planted (the house was built in 1979, so I'm guessing the gardens were installed in the early 80s). But of course whoever planted it did not allow enough room for the plants to reach their mature sizes, and we were left with a tangled mess. I'll have to measure this spring, but it's pretty wide and there was no way to walk through it without stomping on plants and flowers when we purchased the house. Here are a few pictures to give an idea of what it once looked like:
I will attempt to list the main shrubs and plants we found in this jungle. The largest is the viburnum, which is the size of a small tree. I like it and it flowers and it would be a huge job to get rid of it, so it's staying. I'm also keeping a rose of sharon that buried in the middle of that mess, and the weeping cherry on the end. There's a Japanese maple in the middle as well, which will get transplanted this spring or fall. There are 2 overgrown evergreen shurbs in the middle (visible in the first pic), and 3 dwarf evergreen trees to the rear. To the very left of the first picture is some type of fine-needled conifer that is deciduous. I haven't identified it yet.
As for smaller perennials/bulbs, we had: 3 huge patches of creeping juniper evergreen ground cover, 2 potentilla shrubs (bush cinquefoil) that were suffering from lack of sun, a very established peony, foxglove, dianthus, buddleia nanho, sedum (there were 3 to begin with), daffodils, siberian iris, daylilies, flowering garlic chives, and tons of forget-me-nots spilling out of 2 rotting barrels. I'm sure I'm forgetting things (haha), but that's the main stuff.
This fall we ripped out the creeping juniper and the 2 evergreen shrubs, which cleaned things up quite a bit. I transplanted both potentilla shrubs to the new front gardens. Here is the cleaned up look we had in the fall:
The Japanese maple is just visible through the foliage o the weeping cherry here. Immediate plans for the spring are to get rid of the rotting buckets. I have some great galvanized wash tubs from Bob that I plant to put annuals in that I may use in this garden - haven't decided yet. I will try to salvage the forget-me-nots. Either this spring or fall I will move the Japanese maple to a more visible (but undetermined) spot where it can be seen and can actually grow. I also want to ax or transplant the dwarf evergreens. There are tons of bulbs that need dividing and transplanting as well. Lots of work.
I think the best way to tackle this beast is to divide it into 2 areas with a nice path winding through. This will hopefully create a more natural look to the area and provide access for tending to the plants and viewing them. I have grand visions of even putting a bench and/or birdbath in the middle but I'm getting ahead of myself. I started sketching out some ideas last night but once things start coming in and I get plants moved I'll have a better idea of how it will take shape. I'm getting excited already.
