Almost new

Hello All: I have finally subscribed. This is a great place!!!However, Iam not quite sure yet how this works, and I know I have already posted questions in the wrong places - please bear with me until I come up to speed.

Here is my story: We bought a house last year that was unfinished inside and out. No top soil, just hard clay(?) with some stones right up to the house. So last fall we started digging up the dirt in fron of the house - thank God for the tractor. Then we put in semi-decayed leaves from the municipal mulch pile. Since I was in a hurry, my sister and I found some reduced plants at Lowe's(!) and put them in the ground with compost (brought from the old house). I had six daisies, some euonymuses, two different arbor vitaes,and a pieris. This spring we increase the size of one of the beds, to accommodate a curved walk way (which is only partially done at this point) from the parking area to the front steps. I put in a lot of soil conditioner and planted all my new plants with compost/humus/some sand.

I am fortunate in that I had - once - access to a wholesale nursery which allowed me to get a lot for relatively little money. So I got three kinds of viburnums for the front and a little dogwood. I still have Firepower nandinas left over and a Carolina Jessamine. The rest of the beds is a mixture of perennials and annuals. I raised a few plants from seed: several gauras and my great pride and joy - moonflowers which are covering the porch and flowering like crazy. I will post a picture when I learn how. A few weeks ago, DianaT posted info on a sale at Parks Seeds, so I got a bunch of stuff there too.

Perennials: daisies, rudbeckias Goldsturm, gauras, a caryopteris, two perovskias, several veronicas, phloxes (white and blue). All of this is tied together with white and in some places pink vincas and a patch of blue ageratums. I am trying to get a lot of white and blue, the other colors are accents.

Annuals: vincas, ageratums, cosmos, snap dragons, verbenas (not to successful), dusty millers (not good either)

I have never gardened with perennials and shrubs, only vegetables. Therefore, I will have questions for you'all (I am not a Southerner, but this is a very useful expression - and I have lived here for 30 years), and I hope you will help me improve and learn. I have already asked a question about deadheading coreopsis and gotten a response.

Of course, right now I can't stick a shovel in the ground - it is so dry.

Hi welcome you will find help from lots good dg's.. ask away..

Hello, Clementine! I'm almost new, too.

~Kris

Hi Clementine, welcome..I've been addicted to DG since June 06...I too am new to gardening...although I planted 150 perennials (which I got a lot from Church plant sales) etc. with the heat of the summer and poor soil they've had to struggle..I spend many hours nurturing them but it's been a challenge....

Then last week the contractor I have designed a front deck a little larger than I had anticipated (which is great) but advised me that I would have to move a good portion of the plants....

NOT a good time for re-location, but he did tell me he was SURE they would not survive the construction period...

I purchased 20 bags of triple mix soil and dug up a section along the pond I'm developing so here's hoping they do survive...if not, I've tried!!!

welcome from upstate new york. i know exactly how you feel. i had the very same experience you had. i also planted just about the same stuff that you have ONLY it took me 36 years. LOL.

Hello all, it is so nice to be welcomed to the group. Glad to be with you and hear and share our stories. Betty, I wish you the best with your construction site. It sounds you are on the right way with all your soil amendments. And Herbie, your garden must be gorgeous with so many years of doing and growing.