Dawn Brocco's Life and Design Blog

As I don't like walking through the dog's area to get to the line to hang things up, I'm more likely to pin up socks and small things on the lilac bush off the kitchen entrance. Hubby thought my "sock tree" would make a good blog photo, and I was willing to oblige.


Work continues on house prep for relisting, but I'm stuck on the front beds. I know I said I was gonna put in masses of impatiens. But now I'm, #1 - not sure it wouldn't look too uniform and #2 - the beds really need a massive tilling and de-rooting of the maple trees' surface roots that have taken over and I doubt I'm gonna have the time to do bed renovation.

In past years, we've just put red cedar mulch in the beds and left them plantless, instead, putting plants in the 2 large white urns up at the porch entrance. I'd undo the beds completely, except grass isn't going to grow fast enough, never mind blend in with the lawn as it is.

For an idea of the size of these things, the 2 front-walk-bordering beds are each about 2.5' wide and 30" long from porch to street, with a 15' ell each along the front of house - it's a lot to plant, and worse yet, it's only part-shade and some parts of the beds get more light or sun than others. If only the roses weren't choked out by the maples...

Then I thought, why not place low rectangular planters (esp. white ones, to match the house trim and the 2 large urns) on the beds, spaced evenly down all lengths, and fill them with the impatiens, keeping the red mulched beds in their untilled state?

Would this look goofy?

I don't have nearly enough gardening mags or tomes to see if it's been done before. I'm thinking it might look interesting, but need some feedback about the idea! I don''t want a goofy first impression on the house! I'm trying to sell it, not make people laugh at it!