Last spring, my wife and I finally got tired of the weeds overtaking the woody perennial bushes and small decorative trees in our front foundation beds, so we had all the vegetation removed except for a few hydrangeas and some bulbs (gladiolus and calla lily).
soon afterward, I thought it would be fun to try planting veggies in the front bed. I put corn on one side that did poorly (not enough sun, and raided by squirrels) and sunflowers with winter squash on the other side that were moderately successful.
This year I don’t have a plan of what to put there. I don’t want to do anything permanent and pricy, as long term, my wife and I would like the portico removed and a wide front porch the width of the house added. in the meantime, to prevent weeds from overtaking the space again, and vines growing up the house, I’m wondering what I should plant?
I was thinking of something like this. a seed mix of crimson, red and while clover. any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!
The front beds, at their worst. there was another tree like the one on the right on the left as well, but I took the picture after the landscaper already cut it down.
Then this is what it looked like after everything was removed
I then came in and heavily mulched both sides
In early april I had the shutters removed as they were cheap plastic with mismatched colors, and some of them were falling off anyway. they looked terrible. I plan to get new functional ones installed at some point.
I use geranium macrorrhizum and sweet woodruff (galium odoratum) for this purpose. They both form dense, fragrant carpets that are easy to plant into, but difficult for weeds to grow through. The geranium is also the only thing that can survive under the constantly dry overhang of the roof. Both plants have the advantages of being extremely easy to propagate and growing rapidly, while also being very easy to remove and transplant. I also use them both as path edging.
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Just an opinion and my personal taste. I feel shutters make the front of that house more attractive.
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The shutters are gone already. that’s a done deal. I hated the way they looked. Mismatched colors on the lower windows. it looks like they cut another different color to make them taller so they would fit the larger transom windows. looked really bad up close. this is the “good side” of the house were they weren’t already falling off on their own. Sure, good shutters look good but no shutters beats what mess this is:
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If it’s short term I’d go with some cheaper perennials that grow rapidly. Not so much ground cover as just taking up space and shading out competition.
I’ve grown catmint, yellow yarrow, daisies, lambs ear, butterfly bush and roses with great success in one year. They all with little help shade out almost all weeds with a good spring mulching. When you do the porch, most do well when transplanting.
If you do want some edibles, I’ve also had great success with June bearing strawberries. I’d look for a variety that produces a lot of runners. We filled 10’x10’ square with only 25 bare root plants by the end of summer. It was nuts.
A flower mix from American Meadows would be an easy and cheap option too.
Wildflower mix seeded in early March 
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