More Front Border Glory

Front Border from the back with Agastache Rasberry Summer at the bottom

Front border with Yucca rostrata and Stipa barbata

Front border with various dasylirions and Echium vulgare

     As I promised yesterday, I am posting more pictures of my front border which is in its prime right now.  One thing I like about this border is that it seems to arise from almost nothing earlier in the year to attain this crescendo of glory right now.  Some people, me included, like gardens that contain interest the whole year around.  While I still aspire to that goal,  and my garden has enough evergreen structure to accomplish that, I no longer think it is important that every part of the garden contain interest at every part of the year.  The arising of the garden from the ground up each year and the way different plants take over in different seasons is what I find interesting at this stage in my gardening career.  Certainly if this front border were planted in evergreen shrubs it could look good all year round, but you would miss this spectacular show.
     This is not to say this border is empty in the winter time.  It relies on the various spiky plants--the dasylirions, yuccas and nolinas-- as well as the restios for winter interest.  Now that the Eucalyptus which used to live in this border are gone (see this post), I probably need to add more of these evergreen kinds of plants.  It is just that I do not feel the need to have every space of ground covered at all times of the year.
     I should also stress, as I have many times, that this border is never watered and it is not protected from the deer.  Bainbridge Island is deer central and the south part of the island where we live is even more so.  Yet it is still possible to have a beautiful garden consisting only of deer resistant plants.  I often find deer droppings in the middle of this border, yet thus far this year I have seen no evidence of their grazing on any of these plants.
     Although I call this a border, it really is a bed which can be viewed from all sides.  It doesn't really border anything except grass.