The front garden

I spent most of my day with these beauties ...

Ajuga, planted last spring, has spread nicely.  I will dig and plant clumps in a few other spots.

Yellow dead nettle, dug from a neighbor's garden several years ago.

Azalaeas ...

Dogwoods ...

Carolina jessamine (yes, it's jessamine, not jasmine)

And more azaleas.  This shocking pink azalea is always the first one to be fully in bloom.

Epimedium, with delicate flowers that seem to float on slender stalks before the leaves come out.  The heart shaped leaves have just begun to appear and will fill out nicely in the coming weeks.  It's a wonderful ground cover for dry shade.

Lots of vinca and baby autumn ferns

The English boxwood with her chartreuse flush of tender new leaves.  Some people don't like the smell of English boxwoods.  I once heard it described as smelling like dog pee.  I was shocked because I love their smell.  It is not fragrant, but distinctive.  It takes me back to my great uncle's farm in Sandy Springs, to an ornery pony named Candy that we tried somewhat unsuccessfully to ride. Massive boxwoods flanked the front of the house and Uncle Mark raised them in a field behind the little playhouse that I remember so well.  The two boxwoods by my front steps came from the farm.  I cherish them and breathe their odor with delight.

This beauty ... a flowering shrub called Florida anise that does have very fragrant leaves.

And this, my friends, is our lovely weed patch lawn.  Just keepin' it real.  It's not all order and beauty in this garden ... not by a long shot.  

Tomorrow, I'll be out back with the herbs and irises and bleeding hearts and a whole lot of oak leaves.

Til then ...