pretty pretty pots

We bought our house in Durham about three and a half years ago. There was a large garden bed at the front of the house that was mostly just mulch and a rhododendron bush when we first moved in. At first, we tried to make it a perennial garden with native plants, but it quickly became apparent that we just didn’t have the patience to weed it and cultivate it as much as it needed in order for it to not look like a chaotic mess. The rhododendron became too large for the space, and the area looked very barren and brown during the winter.

Here is the bed, almost exactly a year ago:

We had let it go a bit because we just weren’t sure what to do with the space. And then, Tyler thought maybe we should just rock the whole space and plant flowers and shrubs in pots, instead of in the ground, which would give us more control of the shape and the weeds. Since this is such a visible part of our landscape, at the front of the house, we thought a lower maintenance option that would look good even if we travelled or got too busy to tend to it was the best route.

Here is how it looks, a year later:

Obviously, we have also changed the color of our house.

Here’s another angle, showing more of the pots we utilized. We bought almost all of the pots at the At Home store in Durham last summer. Their large pots are surprisingly affordable.

We are under a heat advisory today, which admittedly is not the best time to photograph flowers. I apologize for the wilty-ness. They really are very beautiful when not being singed by the sun.

We’ve toyed with the idea of adding a fountain or some other water feature, but haven’t figured out exactly what we want to do yet.

However, it’s been so nice just pulling a few weeds here and there and not having an entire bed of growing plants to manage. (Especially since I am not the best at identifying what is a plant and what is a weed, and have pulled a few of Tyler’s precious plants in the past).

Sometimes your first attempt doesn’t work (see the first photo). But at least it’s never too late to try something else.