It stopped raining for a few days, so I’ve been whaling away on the front yard. Here’s the progress:

This is the new bed, just to the left of the front door. I transplanted one of the two rosemary bushes, and both coreopsis from the other side of the walkway, and the yellow rose bush from the backyard. Three new yellow knockout roses are in there, too. I’ll be filling in some spaces later with gazanias, and maybe a yarrow. All yellow.

After tearing apart the original front bed to remove the rosemary and coreopsis, I was left with some big holes to fill. I added some scraggly white cherry sage, which I’m hoping will fill in as nicely as the coral ones on the other side of the path, and two gaura, which I’ve been wanting to use. I’ve heard these plants called a lot of things: beebblossoms, butterfly bushes, whirling butterflies. They’re whispy and pretty, and tall.

I’ve also been working on finishing up the shade bed against the house. I still have another Mexican petunia, and an acanthus to plant, and a little more edging and mulching. I need something to hide the hose house over on the right, that will still allow me to drag the hose through it or around it.

Here’s a long shot of the same front bed, and the raised bed in front of it. The red yucca is in full bloom now. I’m bummed that I didn’t get a shot of it with the cherry sage blooming at the same time. The sage just had its first shearing, to clear away all the expired blooms.

One of the rosemary babies I planted is getting really huge, and is lush and green. A second one was transplanted to a new bed, but it’s coming right along. The third—well, it’s pale, and sad, and kinda dry. I don’t think it’s going to make it. It’s in a little bit of a low spot, so I’m thinking that it just got hammered with all the rain. If I have to pull it out, it’s not a big loss, since the cherry sage next to it is getting big enough that it could take over this space.

Finally, a lantana that’s happy. This looked pretty sad a month ago, but I cut it back hard, and watered it. It’s growing like a weed, which is what I wanted it to do.