The Sycamore and Bur Oak

When I first really noticed our front yard after we moved in and I was raking tons of leaves, I developed an intense dislike for the Sycamore tree which is super tall and feels kind of overpowering, plus its constantly shedding leaves, small limbs, and bark. Ugh. I also really disliked its shape though for practical purposes it is a good shade tree. I hired a consulting arborist with the hopes he would tell me that it was in horrible condition and then I could justify to the "Man" eventually cutting it down. It is great condition, so I am stuck with it and the Man's label of arborcidal.

It has taken me a while to figure out what to do to make the Sycamore a little less overpowering. I think my only choice is to plant a front yard garden to draw the eye downward from the tall Sycamore. With that in mind, I started doing some research. The other tree in the front lawn that is smaller is a Bur Oak which will eventually get really big and shady. I like the pictures I've seen of it full grown. It is a happy and relatively easy tree. I actually found a Natural Gardener Post as to what would go good with a Bur Oak: American beautyberry, Elbow bush, pigeonberry, chile pequin, sideoats grama, fall aster. See the actual post here.

I went to the Natural Gardener to see as many of the plants in person as I could, so I could have some time to think about how I felt about them. In wandering around, it looks like the Elbow bush was planted with agarita and evergreen sumac and some other bush I didn't like very much. I also asked the Natural Gardener folks and ended up with two to three employees making suggestions in different areas. The ones I liked are Silver Dragon Liriope (not just the name), Radiation Lantana, Lipstick Salvia, Viva Raspberry Salvia, Dwarf Pink Ruellia, Leadwort Plumbago, Texas Betony, Turks Cap, Columbine, Oxalis, barbados cherry.

I couldn't find anything on what to plant with the Sycamore and didn't know if the two trees would like the same plants, so I asked Mr. Smarty Plants, but I had a brain fog and put down that the other tree was a redbud. Luckily, a redbud is a shade tree too. The recommendations were American beautyberry,Texas sacahuista, Wright's desert honeysuckle, agarita, wax mallow, blood sage, Inland sea oats, Canada wildrye, straggler daisy, caterpillars (also known as Blue curls, Caterpillars, Fiddleneck), sand sedge, Texas sedge. See the actual post here. I felt all excited when I saw that I got an answer to my question, not just because of the answer, but because it also felt somehow special to have asked and gotten my answer posted on the Mr. Smarty Plants website.

I'm thinking I will definitely plant an American Beautyberry. It will be going in the middle green spot between the two trees. Hopefully, it will draw the eye downward in the middle. It seems to be a well-liked bush. I read about it on several different gardening blogs as a favorite plant. Tara loves it too. As to the others, I'm also pretty sure I want some kind of sage, fall aster, and yellow columbines. I'm considering the Elbow bush, but am not yet sure. I really would like some evergreens in the front yard because the winter is pretty bare except for the boxwood.

Eventually, I want some kind of front porch or patio in front of the windows. I think I will put container plants on it and some kind of wall sculpture in between the two windows. But who really knows what will happen by the time I get around to working on the front yard. All I know is that the St. Augustine takes too much care. We haven't mowed it once since we bought the house. It is almost a year since it has been mowed and we no longer have the excuse of not having the equipment since my fabulous in-laws (yes, I actually adore my in-laws) handed down their old lawn keeper upper equipment. All I know is that I will be sheet mulching the front yard to kill the St. Augustine, someday.