Hi there,
I am looking for some help from the good friends in Zone 5A. I need your advice on what to plant bring my boring front and back yard to life. Would like some color for much of the year as possible. I think I can save this year with some good advice. I need help with my shade/partial sun backyard also.
There is a wide variety of plants to chose from so I'm not sure which ones to tell you to start with. Here are some questions for you to help get you started.
What parts of your yard would you like to turn into beds?
Approximately how much sun do these areas recieve?
Is this a dry or wet area of your yard?
Do you want to try annuals and perennials this year? The annuals will make a big impact this year. The perennials will also make a difference this year, but there won't be a much color.
Do you want a natural looking garden or do you like a more structured garden?
Do you need low maintanence plants or do you have time for pruning, dead-heading, extra watering etc.?
Are you able to buy a lot of plants or do you need to start some flower seeds?
Do you want a vegetable garden?
Most of the annuals you find at the local plant stores are suitable for your area. Some have special requirements, you can usually ask someone to find out. If you find employees who can't answer your question, try another customer. Most gardeners love to give helpful tips. For the picture of the front of the house, I think yellows and oranges will make a nice impact but also compliment the color of the house.
Not all the perennials you find at the store will survive the winter. If you like the plant and don't care if it makes it until next year, go ahead and try it. If you find a plant that you are interested in, but not sure how it will do in your area, remember the name of it and ask here. I'm sure someone can help.
There are some cool-weather annuals and perennials that could be started soon. (Maybe even now, not sure.) I usually don't plant the cool-weather plants. If you plant the annuals they usually don't make it through the summer, but they give a head start to your garden. Violas and pansies are popular cool-weather annuals. They usually come in purple, white, and yellow. There are a lot of early spring perennial flowers. Most of them are bulbs and are usually planted in fall. You could start them this year and get the impact early next year.
Here are some shade annuals: Begonias, Coleus, Impatians, Fuschia, Fittonia, Caladium, White Silverdust.
There are also many types of potted houseplants that do well in shade. Not sure if you are interested in those, I'll give you a list if you would like.
Hi XMelissaX,
Thank you for presenting me with more focus questions regarding my front yard.
I would like a low maintanence perennial front yard;with less structure. I would like some flowering perennials, and I am willing to wait for them to bloom next year. I notice that most people use shrubs as front yard landscaping. Is that what you recommend?
I am interested in starting with plants; not seeds. My front area tends to be dry. I lost a small evergreen this year because it was too dry, and I was not instructed on how much a really needed to water and feed it; money down the drain. :-(
I am not interested in vegetable gardening right now.
My backyard sin partially sun and shade. I would like something perennial flowering and natural.
Thanks for your assistance.
My sister said something years ago that I love. She said people that plant boxwoods all across the front of there house have no imagination. The ones you have are fine but I think flowers would look great. What type of soil do you plant with?
Hi Smokey_SC,
Yes, I would love to have flowers! What kind of soil and I planting with???? You are working with a novice, please explain what you mean. Thanks.
You got me on a tough one-names of perennials. I'm good with annuals and houseplants. I'll try to help as much as I can. As far as the boxwoods, it's a personal choice. I have them at my rental because they are very low maintenance, but have never been a fan of the 'pine' boxwoods. I do have a bush that's called boxwood but it's not 'pine'. It has small round leaves and stays green all year. I have it in shade, wish I knew the name of it. In my yard I have red barberries and yellow bushes (very common, don't know their name) I also have viburnum, burning bushes, and purple plums. With the exception of the purple plums all are pretty low maintenance. First year of planting they need more water, but afterwards usually only when it hasn't rained for a long time. I like my bushes to be 'perfectly' pruned, but for a more natural look you could prune once a year or never if you would like. I love the purple plums, but they really attract Japanese beetles. The adults eat the leaves and they lay larvae in the ground- grubs. The beetle bags work pretty well because it attracts the male beetle and traps it. It is supposed to slow/stop the reproduction cycle. I've never really had a problem with the grubs though. Oh, another bush I have-little princess spirea. Has pink flowers about May and I have it growing in shade. Only gets about 2 hrs of sun a day. All these bushes will get pretty large, except the dwarf varieties. My personal fav is the red barberries planted with the yellow bushes. This is a very common 'grouping', but I still love it. (I have about 50 bushes in my yard)
Flowering Perennials-little harder. I have my bushes and usually do a lot of annuals. I do have daylillies (flowers red, orange, yellow) and black-eyed susans (yellow). Both spread very easily, making a more natural setting. They don't require too much care. Daylillies should to be divided every few years (about 4-5) to keep them at their best. I don't know any of the names of the rest of my flowering perennials.
Hostas are a common, easy plant for shade. They need a somewhat moist conditions.
Wish I could think of more names, but here are some other tips.
Perennials usually only flower for a short period of time. For constant color all season, 'stagger' your plants. Use the approximate flowering time for the plant (it's usually pretty close) Then plant a bed with May, June, July etc flowers.
A lot of stores (Lowes is my fav for this) sell perennials on clearance in the fall. They usually don't look their best and are done flowering, but next year they will do fine.
Don't worry about having everything planned perfectly. If you find plants you love, go for it.
It's better to water for a long period of time once a week then to water a short period of time everyday. This allows for deeper watering which means deeper roots.
I have a yearly plant budget. I have to otherwise I would spend everything on my plants, it gets addictive; but this has forced me to be very creative. I love to go clearance plant shopping and love 'freebies' from my mom and my other half. (I got lucky, he's a commercial landscaper. When they order extra, it gets thrown away, and he digs them out of the trash for me.) Look online like craigslist or freecycle to see if you can find free things like bricks, pavers. Just make sure you keep safety in mind.
Don't worry about the soil in your yard too much. You can add things like compost, manure, peat moss, etc, but most plants adapt to soil conditions pretty easily- unless you have special care plants.
Have fun with it and take the time to enjoy your plants!
Another tip for you: if you are a "listmaker", keep notes of things you plant in your yard, things that have done well/not so good, sunny spots, etc. If you really get into gardening like some of us, this will be really helpful.
Take before/after pics. They'll be fun in a couple years.
Keyee, I make my own planting mix. I buy mushroom compost and peat moss at walmart and Lowe's. I mix peat moss in the compost and crumble up dead leaves (by hand). I mix it together and use it to plant everything in. I dig my hole, put in the mix and put in my plant. This gives the plant a really good start. The peat moss helps hold water in the soil. I rarely plant annuals. I like perennials because you don't have to replant every year. Melissa had some very good ideas for plants. Go to lowe's and look around and see what you like. Look on the tag on each plant and see if it says annual or perennial. Buy accordingly as to whether you want it to come back next year. Also look on the tag and see if it says Full Sun, Part Sun or Shade. Read the entire tag. I just bought some plants and didn't read the fine print. I haven't ever seen this on a tag before. It said the plant must have shade in the middle of the day if the temps stayed over 95 degrees for consecutive days. Well it certainly does that here. Check and see if they have some ornamental grasses to add to your bed. There some really pretty ones. Let us know what is happening. Smokey
Smokey, I also mix my dirt. I have pots of dirt, leaves, peat moss, etc. My other half doesn't understand why I save it. He's always trying to throw it away and I'm chasing him around saying NO, that's my DIRT lol ! (They order soil when they need it and he has heavy equipment to move it where he wants it, I don't have that luxury.)
Cool, Melissa, I wondered if anyone else made there own. I am glad to find someone else who makes theres. Sometimes I throw in a little mulch that has broken down and isn't really mulch anymore. My grandson says, "Nana, you can grow anything". It is odd if I have anything die. I like to think that it is my own potting mix that does it.
Me too. My father-in-law says my yard is radioactive, I've always told him it's my own "miracle-grow". Get a couple laughs when people see me 'mixing' dirt, but no complaints when everything's full grown. My tomato plants are usually a lot larger, healtheir than the neighbors (just a little bragging lol) and his are planted right next to mine. I gotta be doing something right.
Is your front yard in full sun? If so, there are some drought tolerant perennials like Russian sage, yarrow, sedum, sempervivum (hens & chicks). Lavender is another one; although, some people have trouble growing it. It actually thrives best with neglect. Columbines are easy to grow in either full sun or part shade.
I'm sure there are many other perennials that would work well. What I like to do is go through catalogs and see what catches my eye. Read the description to see if it fits your conditions. Many, if not most, are hardy to zone 5, which we are in. My favorite catalog to go through is Bluestone Perennials. They also have a website. http://www.bluestoneperennials.com/b/bp/index.html Also I've talked to their customer service, who were very helpful with more information on specific plants I haved inquired about.
Have you ever visited the Chicago Botanic Gardens in Glencoe? It's beautiful, and you can get some good ideas what grows here in Chicago. Also they have master gardeners on site (or you can phone them) whose specific job is to answer questions about plants.
Good luck, and have fun.
