Gardening

{Bye-bye, big tree.}

After 9+ years of living in this house with a big tree in the front, we will finally be able to have a sun garden in front of the porch. Not much will grow there now - the tree probably takes too much from the soil. We do have an orange honeysuckle vine on part of the porch, but once the tree gets its leaves the honeysuckle fades.

We got a new porch floor last year {Jimmy and my dad worked on it one very hot day last summer}, so I'll be painting it soon. The old floor was red, which is a hard color to paint, but I liked it so much I'll probably do it that color again. The colors of the new garden should coordinate with the porch. We currently have cement steps leading up to the porch, which will be replaced with nice wooden steps {again, thanks to dad and Jimmy}. Right now the steps are orange {kind of a terracotta color}, which looks cool with the red floor and all the clay pots around.

{orange azalea}

I've been trying to put all this in a positive light - the garden needs updating anyway since everything is about 9 years old and scraggly. I would love to plant some azaleas and maybe some hydrangeas. The azaleas would look better, though - they'll stay green all year. I love the color of the one in the picture above. My favorite colors for the garden are orange, red and purple.

{red daylily}

I would like to stick with things that are native to the area and that don't require too much care. Ideally, I would like to plant something and not have to worry about it each year.

What are some of your favorite plants? Any suggestions for what I should plant in front of the porch?