Front Yard Project

I am trying to fix our blunderings in the front yard. When we moved in, the front yard had good sun exposure and had many nice perennials. It was also overgrown and had a bunch of black walnut volunteers. (Our squirrels are super helpful at planting walnuts for us.)

We installed the rain garden in the front lawn in front of the planting bed. And while we didn't actually kill the plants, we planted large shrubs and a tree in front of them so they were eventually in part-shade. Then we let the shrubs get quite overgrown and it left those plants in full shade. Many of them died. We made a mess of it. This is how it looks now.

There is still a scrawny purple columbine with a couple pretty flowers on it. There are also a few iris rhizomes and lots of crocosmias, none of which get enough sun now to bloom. I think there is also a peony, but I'm not sure because I don't remember seeing it flower. I'd like to relocate the irises and crocosmia after summer to spots where they will get enough sun to bloom, and the peony in late-winter while it is still dormant. We might also move the columbine to the sunny side of the driveway.

After a year of research, I've gotten pretty familiar with plants that do well in shade so I have started working on plan to try and fix this shady area. This is my tentative plan. Obviously, not everything will be in bloom at once.

• Begonia × tuberosa 'Sun Dancer' - I'm going to try and grow these from seed.
• Epimedium × rubrum
• Helleborus × 'Ruby Wine'
• Heuchera ‘Berry Smoothie’
• Heuchera × villosa ‘Peach Parfait’
• Tulipa Kaufmanniana 'Shakespeare' - These are early spring tulips; I believe they'll flower before the trees leaf out.

We've already put in the epimediums and hellebores. I've ordered the heuchera from Santa Rosa Gardens.