another front yard project

like amy, i have a semi-neglected front yard. in my case, it's because our back yard gets much more sun, so i've focused more of our efforts there. when we moved into our house two and a half years ago, there were already some decent garden spaces carved out, but it's clear that the previous owners and i have different gardening styles! in our front yard, there are two beds just in front of the house that are mostly a variety of hostas, and some red-colored landscaping rock that i cannot stand. i vow that this year will be the year i finally clear it out! i'm not a big fan of the hostas either and am slowly replacing them with other plants. i've planted a lot of tulip bulbs there as well, so it's really pretty in the early spring.

closer to the sidewalk, our house is on a very small hill, so there is one garden bed on one side of the steps up from the street. i've spent the past two summers slowly replacing the hostas in this space and adding some perennial flowers and herbs (st. john's wort, chives, feverfew, and echinacea). i also seem to be in a losing battle with an aggressive spreading weed that is trying to take over the garden (any ideas what that is? or suggestions on how to fight it? i've tried ripping it up by the roots, but it just keeps coming back!)

my big project for this year is to dig up the other side of this small hill. it's partial shade, so that limits my planting options, but i'm confident that i can fill it up without too much trouble. because it's on a hill, i'll need to do some kind of minor terracing to prevent erosion (there were some attempts at this on the other side, but it's not done very well. i'm working on improving that as well). i'll probably just use some bricks that we have in our garage.

i have some plants in my overgrown backyard that i plan to move to this space: rhubarb (we have a rogue one growing in our raspberry patch!), borage, comfrey, bleeding hearts, yarrow, and a few grasses. any other suggestions for a partially shady hilly spot? bonus points if they're medicinal or can be used for dyes :)

i'm really excited to add this new space and spruce up the front of our house. and i love that amy is working on a similar project and we can check up on each other's progress as the summer moves forward.