Ask-a-Dave's-Gardener: Please give plant suggestions for zone 9 (New Orleans, LA), 1 by stmichael

stmichael wrote:
Hello,

I moved to New Orleans, LA last semester for school and I wanted to create a nice garden area in our small yard. I will describe my situation and I have included a picture below. We live in a town home, with a small fenced in area in the back. There is an ~ 10' x 10' wooden deck, then ~ 3 feet of soil, then the fence surrounding the area. When we moved in, the ground was covered with rocks and there was a cluster of small banana tree(ish) things in the corner. I removed the banana trees and rocks, as well as the top 3-5" of soil because it was full of bricks and rocks, etc... I have replaced that with top soil from my local nursery. I have since planted two camillia sasanqua shrubs, one is large white flowers, the other is medium pink flowers. Also one taller camillia that makes red flowers and is much taller. It only has branches at the top like a tree would. Also I have planted some confederate jasmine, and two red encore azaleas. I have a miniature tree thing in a large pot which will remain on the deck, and two small Japanese yew's also in pots to remain on the deck. Lastly, I got what I think was called a miniature japanese black pine - but I am not sure exactly. It is in the picture - the plant store said that it doesn't make pine cones though. I plan to put him in the ground as of now.

I used the panoramic function on my iPhone camera so the picture is a little distorted, but it should give a close enough representation. As you can maybe see - there is still many gaps in the garden. Which leads me to my request. I am having trouble deciding on what to fill in these areas with and would like some suggestions on plants that would work well. I have spent hours online (which led me here several times) as well as in my local stores, but I have never made a garden before so I have little experience of my own. I will now tell you my thoughts so far on what to buy.

I considered getting a dwarf crape myrtle to plant in the ground and several miniature weeping crape myrtles to plant in hanging pots from crapemyrtles.com, owned by Mr. Chopin. However I read many reviews online warning not to buy these, so I am hesitant now about this idea. My thoughts are that I would like to have some plants fill the area not just near the ground like the shrubs, but fill the vertical space as well. I thought about buying window boxes and mounting them on the fence, as well as using hanging baskets either mounted on the fence, or on one of the stands that resemble a coat rack. It is okay to have plants taller than the fence as well. All of the plants I have bought up to this point have been evergreen, however it is not a requirement that they must all be. I however do not wish to plant annuals. My focus on shrubs and trees and the like is due to the low maintenance and hardiness of the plants. Of course some maintenance is okay, but I want plants that will be a permanent fixture, not that will die and have to be re-planted. Finally, my goal is to pick plants that make flowers, berries, change leaves, have interesting bark, or some combination. I would like to have at least something in the garden blooming or near bloom year round. I believe the camilias are winter, the jasmine is fall, and the azaleas are all but winter. So, some other ideas I have had have been red maples, dogwoods, succulents (for the window pots), tea olive, and others... The problem is that there are so many kinds of each of these, and I don't know what would be best for my area and desires. I also feel like there are so many plants out there I don't know of I might be missing something that is a good choice. I have googled for "best new orleans plants" "best southern plants" "plants for small spaces" etc... but I was hoping I could just ask others directly for suggestions here.

Also, I will graduate in three years, and I am 99% sure I will be moving to find a job or more school, therefore, I wish to purchase plants that are somewhat grown. I don't want to buy a baby plant that won't look right until after I have left.

I doubt I have any reciprocal knowledge to give that this community would be interested in - since I know little about gardening, or any other useful subject. However, I would greatly appreciate any suggestions or ideas that you guys have to give.

I will check this page regularly and will try to reply asap to anyone who is willing to post some help.

Thanks,

Michael