All successful gardeners--please help with ideas
Michelle Elder
Hi! Been watching the group for awhile and now have a question for
all the long-time gardeners...
Thanks, in advance, for helping....................
My husband and I had a house built last fall and have NO LANDSCAPING.
We do have trees in the corners of the property, and the lawn was
hydroseeded, but that's it.
We'd both love to have the place "a riot of flowers or flowering
shrubs". We understand that this must be done over a period of years,
and we are willing to put in the time, money and labor to do it.
We've both worked in established gardens, but have never started one
from scratch. We need a little help on choices of plants and design,
I guess. We need to know what to put where.
We've looked at garden catalogs and "Easy-to-Grow" books. However,
we're looking for *actual experience* advice.
We are considering Wisteria or Clematis for privacy from the church
driveway next door. (Builder had to take all trees down on one side
of the house. :<) Something that climbs and covers...
We also love all the old-fashioned flowers: roses, lilacs, peonies,
forsythia, lillies, etc. (In fact, Mom gave me all of her
day-lillies, about 75, mixed colors.)
We live in Zone 5 and have about 3/4 of an acre to work with--mostly
full sun. Our house is a Southern-looking soft-yellow cape with a
full farmer's porch.
We're looking for any suggestions on easy-to-grow perennials of any
type to give our yard the romantic look we desire. Advice on
mail-order sources is also appreciated. (Park's Seed, The Garden
Store, etc.)
odys...@swbell.net
I also live in zone 5 and have now had three gardens from scratch. You
need to consider, usually in the following order: overall design, basic
and dominant elements (large trees, trellises, ponds, patios, etc.), soil
acidity/fertility/structure/drainage, watering, mulch or weed prevention;
then foliage and flower height, flower and foliage form, blooming time;
then flower and foliage color, plant coordination, and any special
features such as fragrance, berries, seed pods, fall color, etc.
Try to plant for zone 4, not just zone 5. In some winters, you may lose
some zone 5 plants. The dwarf almond shrub (5’x5’) will always bloom
magnificently after late frosts; it is a tough and easy to grow plant.
Another tough and easy dwarf shrub is the potentilla; I love white
Abbottswood (2.5’) which has a touch of silver in its leaves. The dwarf
Korean lilac meyeri p. (5’x5’) is another tough and easy plant, is
fragrant, and has great fall foliage. Try the smaller under 4’ English
Austin roses, such as Fair Bianca (white), and English Garden (cream,
yellow, apricot). The apothecary rose (gallica, 4’x4’), once blooming
but gorgeous) is very hardy and disease resistant. I love euonymous
compacta (5’x5’) for its fall foliage and orange seeds (migratory birds
like them).
If you want an ornamental tree, it must go into the basic design and any
nearby plants must be able to mix well with it. A tree with any flower
except white or cream will probably clash with the other plants in the
garden. Good examples are magenta redbuds, the salmon pink dogwood, and
the very bright yellow goldenchain tree. When in bloom, the tree will
dominate and clash with all other plants. However, your pale yellow
house will mix with most colors well. Take a gardening catalog outside
and hold it up to your house and see which colors you like best with it.
Do not place a tree in an area where its droppings (leaves, fruit,
flowers) are a problem. If you choose a crabapple, get a disease
resistance one with tiny fruit. I am now trying to get only small trees
and dwarf shrubs. I recently planted the white crabapple Sugar Tyme
(18’x15’, scab resistant, tiny red fruit) and a dwarf mock orange. I
have the flowering cherry Shogetsu on a berm to prevent drowning
(cherries must be well drained); it has pale pink, changing to white
double sterile flowers and great fall foliage. Only a few of the plums
are really hardy here. Both cherries and plums get the borer-you prevent
borer damage by spraying the trunk once a year.
I live in Missouri with high humidity; plants here get mildew and scab.
You might like the dwarf purple or purple pink lilacs that are mildew
resistant, fragrant, and have fall color. The french lilacs get mildew,
especially v. Ms E. Willmott; but the preston types James MacFarland
(pink 8 ft) and Miss Canada (rose pink 7 ft) do not get mildew but their
leaves did frost badly in the spring of 92. Lilac microph. superba is a
dark lavender pink, does not get mildew, reblooms but is 6’x12’. Most
tall phlox also get mildew but the white Miss Lingaard and David are
mildew resistant. The shrub rose Carefree Beauty is hardy, disease
resistant, coral pink, and has orange hips. The mini roses are great!
The Brownell subzero hybrid tea roses are good; I love the coral orange
Maria Sterns. The Bourbon, Hybrid Perpetual, and once blooming Gallica
roses are usually hardy but may get diseases; however, my gallica
officianalis Apothecary rose (4’x4’) does not get mildew.
Read up on the plants before you order one, and use many sources. Too
many catalogs do not tell you if the plant has a pest or disease problem.
I had to use library books and books from nurseries to find out what
pests and diseases a certain plant has. Go to
http://www.gardenweb.com/forums/ to get advice from expert gardeners.
This is a great set of forums. Most information is in the perennials
forum. I have used them for several months now and received excellent
advice. They have a design forum too, but it is not used much. Also
subscribe to the magazine Horticulture; you can get it from the
newsstands. It is the best for flowering plants and design. See if you
can see the back issues in the library.
My second garden took 20 years but had something blooming all during the
season. I did have to water a lot because the areas were so big and
summers were always very dry. I finally set up a system of hoses and
sprinklers where the hoses were connected with valves. After watering
one area, I would just turn one valve to water another. The land here is
mostly heavy clay with poor drainage. After trying to amend it for
years, I finally turned to raised beds in some areas and hauled in soil.
I also mulched a lot-this kept down weeds and saved many plants from the
drought. At my new place, I had the back yard terraced and also hauled
in soil and mulch. It was covered in garden fabric before mulching;
this is the best weed reducer yet.
The biggest problem with design is that it might look good on paper but
not in real life. You can get a jump start on the over all form that way
though. But realize that you will need to alter it. Garden hoses are
good for laying out the area and are easy to move to get the shapes to
look right. Kids are good for placing trees, but they will try to get
away :-). Start with the form first, then decide on the major elements
like large trees and shrubs. Use kids as trees to mark the planting
location and look at the “tree“ from every angle for the placement. But
watch out, the kids will try to get away. Mine always did.
Large trees and shrubs are often used to block a view, but they usually
do not do a very good job. It is better to use a wooden trellis. Since
trees have to be pruned to get a good shape, they are not thick enough to
block the view. Deciduous trees and shrubs are only concealers for about
half of the year anyway. If you have the room, a tall, thin yew might be
a choice-they can be pruned to shape, but need at least an annual pruning
and you will lose the berries from the female. I have tried many things,
but a tall fence or a tall wooden trellis were the best concealers. I
do not recommend wisteria. I do not like the smell, it is a monster
(eats houses), needs a giant trellis away from a house, and needs too
much pruning. The large flowered clematis do not grow tall but may be a
good choice on a wooden trellis. Some of the small flowered clematis
might be a choice on a wooden trellis, but use them in the same fashion
as an ornamental tree-they will be dominant for a time. The creamy white
autumn clematis smells like sweet clover, is a dainty vine, has pretty
fluffy seed pods, and would mix well in the landscape and with your
house. You can also mix a climbing or trellis rose with a clematis; it
is a pretty effect but the pruning is a chore; I have Duchess of Albany
(clematis texensis-cup form) with the old fashioned roses Mme. Isaac
Perriere and Reine des Violettes and the effect is gorgeous. A
“non-vigorous” honeysuckle may also be a choice but make sure it will not
take over; do not get Hall’s-it is an aggressive vine and will take over
the yard. I could not find a fragrant honeysuckle that was not
aggressive. I used non-fragrant lonicera heckrotti that was rose-red
and yellow and bloomed a very long time. It would look good with your
house color. I also had grapes, but they take a lot of work, need
spraying, and will also take down a trellis or fence.
Decide where your grass and paved paths will be and figure out a way to
keep the grass mowed but the grass seeds out of your garden. I have a
problem with the grass seeds at my new place in one area and will have to
change it. I am going to keep the roses and mulch it heavily, but remove
the low growing plants. I really like the chopped cypress mulch best, it
does not degrade fast. The bark mulch is a haven for slugs and does not
do its job well anyway. Also decide if pets could be a problem, such as
digging dogs. Mine dig, but they have their own dirt area and they do
not dig through the garden fabric. They may make a path through the
grass; if so, that is a good place to make a paved path.
My biggest problem has been to obtain the correct colors and coordinate
them. Too many catalogs do not describe the color accurately or the
photographs are not accurate (they seldom are). I use the following
plants to see if the colors are accurate in the catalogs: daffodil
“Salome” (not pink but yellowish peach with a gold rim), and germanium
“Johnson’s Blue” (not blue but lavender blue). I usually have to dig up
my plants and move them around for matching with others-a big chore. I
also have had to give many away that did not fit my color scheme.
Good sources include: Bluestone (baby perennials and decent sized
shrubs-inexpensive-bought from them for years), Wayside (unusual
plants-has a rose catalog too- expensive-may be mismarked-refunds
readily), Carroll Gardens ($3 catalog, wide selection of perennials, some
unusual, slightly expensive, has dwarf fragrant shrubs), McClure &
Zimmerman (wide selection of unusual bulbs-inexpensive), Klemn
(peonies-expensive but worth it), B&D Lilies (inexpensive), Nor’East
(mini roses-inexpensive), and Heirloom ($5 catalog, old fashioned,
English, patio own-root virus-free roses-inexpensive), Gardens Alive
(misc stuff-great ideas-bought the garden fabric from them). I have a
lot of other good sources for plants such as reblooming iris, siberian
iris, bulbs, alpines, fruit trees, etc. If you want to start from seed,
there are more choices. Please e-mail me if you want more information.
I can also recommend some great and unusual design books. Good luck.
Natalie McNair-Huff
Where do you live?
Whatever you do, plan now.... Don't make the same mistake everyone else has
made by planting something that fits now but will be 10 or 20 times too big
in a few years. You could buy a program to do landscape design on your
computer. Or (I found this to be a simpler, less expensive proposition)
chart your house and lawn on graph paper. Then plan where you want things
(trees for shade, flower garden, herbs, shrubs, privacy hedge/screen). Keep
sight lines and sun exposure in mind. In fact you could use a clear acrylic
overlay to indicate these things. When you look at plant listings note the
mature size and use that size on your chart. If the plant looks too small
in the beginning you can always plant annuals and perennials around it. As
for mail order sources I've had good luck with Brecks and Springhill as
well as seeds from Territorial (a N.W. seed company), but we prefer to shop
local nurseries first.
A good site on the net to look at for plant ideas is the Time Life Complete
Gardener Encyclopedia:
http://pathfinder.com/@@RxlEyAQAsXZSigyW/vg/TimeLife/CG/vg-search.html
Have you thought about incorporating a lot of native plants into your
landscape. Native plants look nice in a planned garden. Plus they attract
wildlife like birds, bees and butterflies as well as beneficial insects (as
long as you don't poison them). Native plants are also supremely suited to
your climate and soil types and don't need as much supplementary watering.
And if you start your landscaping with these plants in mind you'll have
fewer problems picking from the thousands of different plants.
If you want immediate impact, pick one area of your yard and plant it with
a shrub and perennials. Next year more onto another area....Beyond that, go
to public gardens in your area and see what you like. Take pictures, take
notes and start an idea book. Paste in pictures of landscapes you like from
magazines. You can also play with color combinations in the same book.
These are plants that I've found are easy to grow and offer immediate
satisfaction: poppies (all kinds, but especially oriental poppies), herbs,
forsythia, hydrangea, jacob's ladder, daisies, dahlia's (you will have to
dig them up before winter), gladioli, nasturtium (annual), hollyhocks, all
bulbs, on and on and on....
In a way I'm envious. Kind of like having a fresh canvas.
Peace and Good Luck
penny newbury
Michelle wrote:
"My husband and I had a house built last fall and have NO LANDSCAPING.
We do have trees in the corners of the property, and the lawn was
hydroseeded, but that's it.
We'd both love to have the place "a riot of flowers or flowering
shrubs". We understand that this must be done over a period of years,
and we are willing to put in the time, money and labor to do it.
We've both worked in established gardens, but have never started one
from scratch. We need a little help on choices of plants and design,
I guess. We need to know what to put where."
Well, I never thought I'd say this, being the cheapest person on the
planet and a big fan of Doing It Myself, but I am also an even bigger fan
of Instant Gratification. I've been gardening a long time, but
large-scale projects elude me. Last year I aquired a tenant who was a
landscape designer. (Aha, I thought, Martha Stewart with a trowel.) But
the woman was a marvel. I checked out the plans she created for a variety
of clients, from a single bed to a ten-acre estate with pond. She'd put
together designs based on what her customers wanted (specific plants,
mood, color, budget, etc), and pulled it all together so that the customer
(if he/she wanted to) could alter the design over time, tend to it madly,
or leave it alone. She sold designs/plans separately as well as designs
plus their installation. Her design for a rather complicated
uproot-everything-and-start-again half-acre with a Victorian house was
about $300 as I recall. She helped me with my garden because she loved
plants more than anything, and she was never wrong in her advice or color
sense or placement or what the plant/shrub could tolerate. What I'm
saying, I guess, is that it's worth the initial outlay to have a
professional help you. There still will be scads more for you to do
alone. Good luck!!
Christine A. Owens
Michelle Elder wrote:
>
> Hi! Been watching the group for awhile and now have a question for
> all the long-time gardeners...
>
> Thanks, in advance, for helping....................
>
> We do have trees in the corners of the property, and the lawn was
> hydroseeded, but that's it.
>
> We'd both love to have the place "a riot of flowers or flowering
> shrubs". We understand that this must be done over a period of years,
> and we are willing to put in the time, money and labor to do it.
your very best source of advice for this is your local garden club. They will know what
grows best locally, what local vendors are trustworthy, etc.
Another good source for information is your local county extension office.
You might also want to consider paying for a few hours of a landscape designer's time
-- once you have some general idea of what you want to do. S/he will be able to help
you put together a long-range plan for how the yard should go.
Chris Owens