Making over a front garden: a photo diary

A winding path
Virtually all of the great gardens of the world have pathways that seamlessly lead from one garden 'room' to another. Before I started this makeover, my garden had only a stone path that led from the driveway to the front door and then abruptly ended. I decided to extend the pathway so that it started at the front of the house and wrapped around the side, spilling out into the back gardens.

Because I wanted to achieve a traditional English garden look, I planted climbing roses so that they would grow over the newly added arbours. The roses I used included: 'Zepherine Drouhin,' a thornless rose bearing lightly fragrant, deep pink flowers in early summer; 'Lavender Lassie,' a lilac-hued rose with extremely fragrant double blossoms; and 'New Dawn,' a fragrant pink rose that will tolerate shade.

Other new plantings included:

1. Allium 'Gladiators,' a spherical, purple-headed, spring blooming flower that's a real showstopper when used in abundance in the border.
2. Spiraea, a medium-sized bush that blooms profusely with aromatic white flowers in late spring and turns a orange hue by autumn.
3. Evergreens, boxwoods and junipers were used along the border and yew bushes were planted along the path to give that area a sense of unity.

Nationally known gardening expert, and author of Digging Deep: Unearthing Your Creative Roots Through Gardening, Fran Sorin is interested in helping women understand themselves in relation to their gardens.

Fran is a CBS Radio News Contributor, the GardenSmart contributor to USA Weekend Magazine, a contributing editor of Radius Magazine and is the Gardening Expert for DIY's 'Home Made Easy' and Comcast's 'Your Morning' Show. Fran has made appearances on 'Regis and Kelly', 'The Today Show', CNN, HGTV and The Discovery Channel.

For more information on Fran, go to her website at: www.fransorin.com