New to gardening: need advice

Hi Everyone!

I'm new to DG and gardening..... DH and I just moved into our first house (Puyallup) and we have no experience with any kind of garden work. But I'm very willing to learn and can't wait to start planting/taking care of whatever we inherited from the previous owner.
Attached is a picture of the Heather plants (is that correct?) bordering the outside of the front lawn. As you can see, there are a ton of bald patches between the plants (not clearly visible in this picture, especially the sides), some plants seem to be dry or daying and there is a lot of space between the plants and the edge of the lawn. I have two specific questions:
1. Should I plant more of the same plants in the bald patches or try something else there? Any recommendations?
2. What kind of plants should I get for the area between the Heather and the lawn? Any recommendations?

Like I said, I'm new to all this so please forgive the ignorance and any advice or ideas that you may have, are appreciated!! Thanks!



This message was edited Jan 25, 2010 4:57 PM

Welcome Tulika, and I hope you find gardening as enjoyable as the rest of us do. Looks like you want to fill in your rockery area. I'd start by locating a local nursery, making a point to go there once a month, and buy at least one rockery-type perennial in bloom that month (or 2, or 3, or...). Instant gratification. As you learn what works and what doesn't, you can divide and/or move your plants, or perhaps find someone nearby to trade starts with. I used to get caught up in the "must have 3 or 5" to create a presence, only to have all 5 die on me...

Hi Tulika - welcome to this corner of Dave's Garden!
The magic words are "can't wait to......", and this is the right place to utter such a thing.
Please fasten your seatbelt, tray table locked, hmmm...reclining seat is just fine (we're into comfort here).
What you have explained is going to result in a lot of information. This can be narrowed down by answering a few questions:

The area with the Heather - it appears to be very exposed to the sun, correct?
Is there a watering system in place? If not, will you be watering by sprinkler or hand?
Do you want to keep the Heather there?
Textures/Colours you prefer?
Are you looking to fill that entire area in?
When you have a chance, poke around & see what the soil is like there - let us know. There are MANY options, so it helps to know a little more.
And don't be shy - none of us are!
Oh - there is a seed exchange at Pixy's this saturday - might you be able to come? It's a casual affair, well, until we actually deal with the seeds, then you see that serious furrowed brow type look slip across each face. I know I speak for the rest - we'd love to meet you & help you out. Please try to join us!
Take pictures & post, especially if you've got things that you can't identify - we can probably ID most of them.
Don't feel overwhelmed - the learning curve is almost straight up, but very rewarding & fun.
Do you want more plants? We like to share.....

Yes, we most definitely do like to share!

Just wanted to say Hi!", and also that your yard has very nice "bones". An attractive entrance and doors, a nice rockery. Whatever you decide you like and want to try, you've got a very nice canvas to work with. :)

Along w/ Katye's great questions, here's a few more to get you thinking about what you really want or would like.
When did you move in? Have you seen the plantings in spring or summer?
Are you concerned with privacy? Are there views you want or don't want?
Do you have any HOA rules about what you can or can't do?
What direction does the yard face? When do you have sun and/or shade?
How do you want to use the space?
Have you thought about yards that you really like-what features do they have? Lots of flowers, or grasses, or very modernisitic, or???
What sort of time or work do you want to invest? Do you want things that mostly take care of themselves, or are you interested in being more hands-on?

Wow, are there really HOA rules about what you can plant in your own yard? Whole 'nother world to me. To each his own, though, my bro lives in an HOA neighborhood and absolutely loves all the rules.

Funny story, shortly after he moved to his new house he was visiting at my place and extolling all the virtues of having other people pick out your paint color, breed of dog, etc. At one point, he bragged that one would not find a blue tarp anywhere on his road. At the time, I was gazing out my kitchen window at my winterized camper which (gasp) was further protected from the elements with a blue tarp. I vaguely wondered if big bro even realized how offensive he was being. Nah.

Hi Bonehead, yes, HOA's and/or CC&Rs can be scary. I think it depends on what the rules were when it was set up, but when we thought DH was going to be transferred to Texas I started house-shopping and found some rules online. Some places have rules about the % of lawn you must have, and that you must water (imagine, people in Denver during a drought were being fined by their HOA for NOT watering...) . Other places don't allow compost piles, and you must get anything you want to plant and the plan approved before you plant (same goes for fences). There's a woman here in Camas who is having problems because of the type of grass seed she put in (a meadow mix). We actually insisted on reading a full copy of the CC&R's here before we would make an offer. Ours are extremely minimal, with a clause that says that if you do any change and no neighbor objects, after xx days it's not objectionable (and there's no HOA)

Let's hope that Tulika doesn't have to deal with any of that! The house looks new enough that it seemed like a good question to ask, though. It's so much better to know before you get started what your limitations are, though, if there are any. Some places do levy fines and can get very nasty, and it's just a waste of effort and money if you get caught up in those problems.

Susybell, very good advice to carefully read any and all rules and regulations. Caveat emptor.

Bonehead, next time your brother visits I think you should glue glitter all over your blue tarp. :)

BH, ; ) Well, let's just say I most likely will never end up as one of your brother's newest neighbors, lol!

But, this is Tulika's thread about her new yard and I don't want to take it over from a new gardener and her nice new house....she's new enough to this forum she's not used to how our threads are very free-form and wander in subject, and I don't want to scare her away. :)

Tulika, welcome to the PNW forum! I moved to Oregon a few years ago and was so happy to find DG. I am also a new gardener and have received so much great information here. Everyone is supportive and friendly and I know you will be happy you joined. I will refrain from giving any gardening advice except to just have fun and don't be too afraid to make mistakes!

I ditto, Welcome Tulika! Your house looks really nice. I love the look of brick and the blue doors are great. That rockery can become a really dramatic part of your yard, with draping plants of various types clambering down the rocks. Personally I would prefer it with different heights and textures of plants mixed in, along with the heathers, which are a beautiful plant as well. A couple of specific plants you might look for are: Lithodora (an evergreen trailing plant with small blue star shaped flowers), Aubretia (also trailing, with purple flowers).

Just as a general principle, Tulika, you might find it useful to go wandering around and see what other people are growing in areas that are like yours. Be sure it's actually like what you have, in terms of amount of sunlight particularly. Note things you like - even take your camera with you, so you can go to a nursery and say, "I'd like to have some of This, do you know what it is?" And I really like Bonehead's recommendation that you go get one, and just divide it if it's a success. As long as it's a perennial and not a woody shrub you can probably do this easily.

At the nursery where I work, we regularly recommend that our clients who are starting from scratch come back several times a season, or whenever their garden is lacking the "punch" they want, and pick out something that will work at that time. Otherwise, they'll end up with a garden that looks great only during the season when they bought Everything!

One downfall of early gardening efforts is going to the nursery and finding something you like, that's not actually going to appreciate the conditions you can offer when you get home. (Kind of like all us Minnesotans who insist on trying to grow rhododendrons because they're so magnificent. Even "hardy" ones need special siting, here.) You'll be happier if you plant what's going to thrive on your site.

I love the look of your house, you'll have a wonderfully interesting place to come home to!

By the way, you might want to wait until the area daffodils and tulips are up before you dig up those areas, unless you're sure there are no bulbs planted there. A wide bare strip like that might mean the former owners had a fantastic spring display. Or, maybe they used to fill that whole area in with brightly colored annuals. Or both! Bulbs in spring, overplanted with annuals as the bulb flowers begin to fade. Just a thought --! And another option for you.

Welcome, Tulika. I soooo envy you that you found DG early on and this great group of 'enablers' yes, you heard me right. enablers. You know who you are. hee-hee. They have all kinds of great ideas. I hope you can get to the event at pixy's this Saturday.

Hi and welcome. You have a cute house and it should be really fun to dress it up. Heathers will spred sideways and over the bank, so they may fill in, in a few years. If you like them their care is simple. They don't like fertilizer ever. After they bloom the flowers will turn brown and you should prune them off at that time. That will keep them in shape. Sometimes they do turn dark like your one has done. You can prune it off and see if it re-grows or take it out if you don't want to fiddle with it. I have cut mine back severely and they do re-grow. They also don't need much moisture. You can get ones that bloom almost all year-round, lots of different foliage and flowers colors.
Creeping phlox is a good spreading, draping rockery plant and comes in white, pink, lavender, dark pink maybe more. Would go will with the lithodora 'Grace Ward'.

Dwarf conifers and grasses go well in a heather bed. Same requirements.

Oh thank you for remembering, Willow! - Grasses - a definite yes!
Tulika - hope we didn't overwhelm you, and please don't hesitate to ask ANYTHING.
We really do get it - plant geeks one & all......

Poor Tulika. You guys scared the crap out of her. Gently, people! Gently!

oh she's just busy.

Maybe she is planting in all that empty space she has.

You guys were reeling her in like a wild marlin! Now she's gone. Shoot. I just know you scared the living daylights out of that woman. Now she will never know the joys of planting lavender among her pretty heathers.

Oh, I feel so bad. Darn

Hey - you guys didn't scare me off!

You are much tougher than you sound. ^_^

Yeah. Plus you live in Portland, Land of Gardners. You'd be, like, totally left out if you didn't garden and you lived in Portland.