Before & After: A Front Garden Goes From Boring to Blooming

Rebecca Bond
Rebecca Bond
Rebecca Bond is a House Tour contributor at Apartment Therapy. She is an interiors-addicted, design-obsessed, Italian-speaking former TV producer director and mother of two gorgeous kids.
updated May 4, 2019
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Brick house exterior with large windows, red curtains, and garden plants.
(Image credit: Rebecca Bond)

This sad-looking border in front of my house is the first proper gardening project I ever tackled. My previous experience of growing things was limited to a couple of window boxes and some short-lived herbs in pots, so when I put a few plants in the ground last spring, I wasn’t sure how they would turn out…

(Image credit: Rebecca Bond)

One year on, I have a blooming border of three different types of lavender, alliums, agapanthus (African lilies), nemesia, and daisies. It’s a sunny spot and the soil is not great, but every last plant has survived! At the garden center, I looked for the magic words ‘hardy’ and ‘perennial’ on the labels. I wanted tough plants that could crack on with the job of growing without too much input from me.

(Image credit: Rebecca Bond)

Here’s how things looked last spring right after I put the plants in the ground. I can’t believe how teeny they were!

(Image credit: Rebecca Bond)

The lavender now attracts lots of bees, the cat is super-happy with her shady hideout, and I have a beautiful flowerbed that looks lovely from inside and out.

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