Front Yard Re-Do

I finally managed to get out early this morning to beat the heat.  I wanted to finish edging and mulching one of the new garden beds in front.

Before.

 

I messed up the curves a little.  This garden has a Lovely Fairy rose, Easy Does It rose, Vanilla Strawberry hydrangea and a rose my brother yanked out of his yard for me.  It's already got new growth, and I'm thinking I might see blooms this year.  I want to try to keep things considerably less crowded than I normally do, especially since it's front and center.

Do you pick flowers from your gardens?  I don't like to; I like to see them in the yard.  My grandfather was like that, too, I'm told.  These two blooms accidentally came off from this morning's pruning session.  Is there anything more beautiful than baby blue and baby pink?  (I can't stop taking pictures of the huge blue hydrangea in the front yard; forgive me.)

 

 I've got a lot of gardening ahead of me this summer.  I also decided to plant the "alleyway" this year.  My back garden sits on top of a stone wall, and there's a strip of land below it, like an alley, which sits on top of my neighbor's stone wall, neighboring our properties.  I plan on raiding more of my mother's abandoned garden and planting a rhododendron, azalea, spirea and hydrangea.  I'll also transplant the deutzia that self-seeded in the front border garden last year.  It looks like I'll be transplanting the pink hydrangea from the front as well.  It got huge and blocks the pathway.

Hopefully the weather will cooperate.  I realize I've spent many months now complaining about the weather.  I need to be more flexible and creative with my time.