The start of a new year is a good time to look at the garden and decide what plants look drab and tired and may need to be replaced with something new and fresh.

I did just that out of necessity, I had a Mexican sage, Salvia leucantha that had called the front of my house home for several years. This sage grew so much you could not get a ladder behind it so that the Christmas lights could be put up.  It was so big it covered a white lavender that died from lack of sun and room to grow.   This sage was cut down to the ground last year, this year it came back and grew taller and wider than before and even covered part of my front porch.  The only things left in this space are some rose bushes in the back and a sage called lipstick, which the hummingbirds love; it was also pruned way down.

So now I am starting over with a bare front garden. I am looking at all the garden catalogs that come in the mail to get an idea of what plants I can put there that need full sun most of the day and will leave room for other things to grow.