The green grass of home doesn't interest Liz Primeau.
She's a front-yard rebel and proud of it.
Her 65 by 40-foot lawn is long gone, replaced by a gregarious gathering of vibrant vegetation -- fabulous flowers, cacti, shrubs and small trees. The results are spectacular.
"Grass is boring -- it's so much prettier to have gardens in the front and a lot less work," says Primeau, author of Front Yard Gardens -- Growing More Than Grass (Firefly).
"It's much friendlier to nature and to the eye."
Bucking suburbia's unwritten rule of front lawns was inspired by more than just esthetics. Her backyard undulated with nature-friendly, thriving beauty.
But the front: "No bugs, no birds, no butterflies, no animals. Worse, no personality."
So she lost the lawn. The foliaged facelift brings joy to Primeau and nature. The biodiversity welcomes insects and other garden guests.
"I grow plants that like it in my garden and like the conditions of my garden," says Primeau, who sticks to large patches of the plants that work and bloom in waves.
Flowers unfurl in early March and continue until early frost. From rhododendrons and rose bushes to burning bush, butterfly bush and mugo pine, the plant types come alive over the summer.
Add to that beds heavily planted with spring bulbs and self-seeding annuals plus daisies, thyme, moss, lavender, yuccas, sage, catmint, lamb's ear and purple coneflower and more.
She calls it easy-going gardening.
"Once things take root, you're good to go."
There's little work involved with a mixed garden when it's densely planted since weeds have trouble thriving. With a bit of spring weeding, thinning and editing, Primeau and her plants enjoy the summer.
There's a lot less watering required than high-maintenance lawns, adds Primeau, also the author of Gardening Basics for Canadians For Dummies (John Wiley & Sons).
Mixed front gardens are "something the birds and the bees and Mother Nature will love. Something we can create without the help of a dangerous chemical cocktail of fertilizers and pesticides -- and too much water."
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TIPS
Tracy Disabato-Aust offers up50 High-Impact, Low-Care Garden Plants(Timber), for gardeners of all levels who want to have time to enjoy their gardens, not just work in them. Disabato-Aust herself is a national level triathlete who trains two to three hours per day.
She's given the boot to any fussy prima-donnas and included garden stars that don't require pampering. You reap what you sow with these babies; they aren't only tough, beautiful and durable, check out their long-lasting blooms, great form, colour and texture.
"People can be very intimidated by gardening. I want to make it accessible to anyone," says Disabato- Aust. "Gardening offers a connection with nature and we need that now more than ever."
The Ohio native wants to help the time-starved reap the rewards. "Sometimes they just want to be told what works -- and that just what I've done, with ideas to combine plants with great companions."
Take your pick, plant 'em and then sit back and take it all in:
- Elin meadow rue
- Giant coneflower
- Hansa rugosa rose
- Variegated Solomon's seal
- Dragon's-eye pine
- Oriental poppy
- Caesar's Brother Siberian iris
- Sum and Substance hosta
- Tricolour beech tree
- Wild-oat (Chasmanthium latifolium)
- Blue false indigo
Looking for a high output but low-input garden? Go for garden showstoppers that give instead of get -- plants that deliver high impact but ask little in return, besides water and sunlight.
