And here's a view of the front garden from a different angle. Please ignore the mess on the driveway!

Thanks so much for sharing those. Your front garden is absolutely gorgeous.

One of the things I both love and hate about sharing pics is realizing how "narrow" my vision for a garden is. I can scheme and dream big, planning and plotting with a billion different plants, but at the end of the day I know my style will vary greatly from others. Being able to share our voices with each other is always a reminder I have a lot to learn, and given all those exact same plants, I'd never be able to combine them and duplicate that beautiful layout.

Out of curiosity, what can you tell me about your water feature? Also, aside from the changes you made, how long has that bed been in place? It looks so natural and untended (in a good way!)

Love it! Beautiful! You have definitely got the 'tropical cottage garden' thing down!

Stephanie

The front flower bed has been a work in progress for the past 9 years and I doubt that I'll ever be completely done with it! For the first year or so It was just a few plants in the ground with only the vaguest idea of what the shape of the bed would be. Then I put in the irrigation system followed by the new front sidewalk. I adjusted the rocks forming the outline of the bed several times before I was happy with it and just recently added the concrete strip in front of the rocks. The pond was added three years ago (Ithink) and ended up being much bigger and deeper then I had originally intended but I love watching the fish swim around and seeing the waterlilies bloom. The ponds about 5'wide 11'long and 2 to 2.5' deep.

I'm glad you think it looks natural and untended since that's the look I like best! When I have the mix of plants right by the middle of summer you shouldn't be able to see any of the mulch. Some of the plants I removed since the fall where umbrella sedge that was taking over, yellow walking iris that wasn't doing well in the sun, and some type of tall white petunia that also tried to take over. I added a couple banana trees, louisiana iris, lilies, and the usual mix of annuals - profusion zinnias, thin leaf coreopsis, gazania, coleus, and dianthus. Some of the anchor plants are crinums, pink porterweed, lionstail, fennel, white butterfly ginger, and bamboo muhley grass.

Everyone has a different gardening style and I think that's one of the things that make it so fun to look at pictures of different garden!

Here's a picture of the pond from a year or so ago. The umbrlla sedge behind the waterfall is now gone and I've added a pot of cattails in the pond along with some other small changes.

I think you might need to water that car a bit. It's looking a little on the small side. A little water, a bit of fertilizer and it should double in size by the end of the season.

(This coming from the guy who has to judge whether a plant sale is worth going to by how much gas his truck will drink.)

On the more serious side, this is my kind of garden. Very naturalistic. Where you get to enjoy the sights and smells and you never know if you'll see a snake or some other critter moving through it all.

And Karalynn is right, everyone has their own flavor/style of gardening. It doesn't mean one style is right and one style is wrong (unless you're going for an arctic lichen garden in South Florida). But regardless of style, you can often get ideas for your own garden from looking at others, or your garden might give others ideas. That's why I like the Discovery Gardens down in Tavares. On a little over 3 acres of land they have something like 18 different garden themes (okay, their site says 20). While not all the themes really appeal to me, I always wander through them all to pick up little ideas.

Leekle, believe it or not when I have the back seats folded down (which they usually are) I can fit as much stuff as my friend can in the back of her small pick-up. I know this because I was helping her to move when it started to rain and we had to quickly move everything from her truck bed into my car. LOL If I lay the front passenger seat down as well I can get a 8 foot tall tree in there too! I haul mulch, bags of compost, even rocks in that car! It's amazing how much I can haul in such a small looking car. Any future car I buy will be a hatchback!

I love finding wildlife in my garden as long as that wildlife isn't eating my fish or leaving dead things in the birdbath! The herons do the first and the blasted crows do the last (baby birds and toads so far). I get lots of small birds, countless lizards, leopard frogs, toad, dragonflies, butterflies, and the occasional snake.

Kara, your garden is beautiful! a feast for the eyes.

Silvia

Kara, I love it all, especially the pink flowers hanging over the pond. Gorgeous! I see your double tiger lily in there, too, holding its pretty, double heads up high. :) Very, very nice!

Carol in Jacksonville

That's nice! Notice the grass(lawn) next door looks pale in comparison to your front garden. Beautiful job!

Kara -
Just my kind of garden! Beautiful and natural.
As has been stated here, everyone has different tastes...and what they want from their gardens. I want wildlife and chaos!
What I never want is a manicured look -

So I appreciate what you've done and wish I had that space to work on.
Keep posting pics!
Hester

I'm glad everyone's enjoying the pictures!

It's gorgeous! If you ever run out of things to do at your place, feel free to come work on mine. ;)

Kara, I've much enjoyed your pictures of this sunny area over the years. Kuddos for not only keeping the beauty going, but enlarging it. A little bit of heaven. Irma