Replacing Blond Ambition planting area in back yard.

When we re-landscaped our back yard three years ago, there was a little rectangular planting area against the house, beneath the kitchen window. The landscape designer planted it with a grassy bush called Blond Ambition. It was a thin grassy bush with little wheat-shaped stalks on the tips that were bent and looked like grasshoppers. It turns out they attracted lots of aphids and they did not do well, so we took them out. The planting area was plain dirt and mulch for a while. My mom said I could re-design it and it took me a while figure out what to do with it.

Here below is me examining the planting area and trying to decide what to plant. The area is 110″ by 25″.

This is an image of the Blond Ambition that I got from the internet. We do not have a photo of our actual yard with the Blond Ambition, unfortunately. Ours was so full of aphids that the yellow tips were black. Yuck!

I did a lot of research. We went to different nurseries. I wanted to plant Society Garlic plants because they repel mosquitos and they are pretty hardy. But I also wanted something that was taller and that had more color. The planting area faced south and that means it got a ton of sun. In the summers here, the weather can reach 105 to 110 degrees so it had to be a really touch plant. I had so many ideas for this little plot of that I spent a really long time thinking about it.

Here is me researching on what plants to plant in our spot. Part of the reason I know so many plants is because I have Googled ALL the plants!

Here below is a paper I drew of an idea of what I wanted to landscape in the spot. It took me about 20 minutes to draw this drawing, which is not a long time.

Finally, I decided that I wanted to plant Kangaroo Paws! We had seen some pretty ones at Armstrong Gardens that came in three colors (pink, red, and yellow), and also different size. I will update this blog once we make some progress.