A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2004 MIXIN' IT UP IN THE GARDEN!!! BAM!!!!

Hi, guys! Let's mix it up in the garden! BAM!(ok, ok, so I'm stealin' Emeril's Bam..so sue me!)

With the New Year and all, I've been reading posts here about people wanting to make a change, but does anyone ever feel that they want to completely change their garden, or a garden bed, etc. Do you have a very streamlined garden, and now want to go a little wild??

Or vice versa?? Or do you just want to try something a little new?? Share your new gardening ideas here!

I deparately want to put in a veggie garden and have been planning it. I just need to convince my hubby so he'll help with the sprinklers. I'm thinking a raised bed on the west side of our house, it gets lots of sun but in the heat of the day it starts to get shady so it won't scorch them. Plus I have an orange tree there to provide some shade.

I did make some changes in my existing beds this weekend. For some reason I planted canna lillies behind my hisbiscus plants and they were becoming way too intrusive, knocking my poor hibsicus over. And since I like hibiscus better, they get priority. So now I have a little more room to play with this spring. I just moved cannas over to a different part of the yard. I do have some gift certs for my favorite nursery so I will be able to swing some more plants without causing hubby any grief.

Anyone have any suggestions for plants under a maple tree? I need something that likes shade and has shallow roots as the maple's roots are everywhere. Or is it just hopeless? I had California poppies do okay there until the gardeners (when I had them) weed-whacked them. I'd love a hydrangea or two. What do you think?

Looking forward to the day when the kids grow out of playing cricket on the lawn,and i can get the whole lot up,will be great to look out from the window and not see everything in one go.

Gardengal,

I'd like a raised veggie garden this year too. I hope I'll be able to pull it off. There is SO much that needs to be done in the garden to landscape after last spring/summer purge...like a clean slate.

I have a maple tree too and I know what you mean about the roots. Under my maple the previous owners made a sort of stone ring small wall around the tree, but the tree roots sort of broke the ring around it and it was covered in ivy to boot. Grass hasn't been growing there very well either. I think I need an arborist to trim the tree properly. I think I need a ton of dirt delivered to fill in the sort of hole around the tree after I finish with the dratted ivy. So, I will be curious to see if anyone else responds because I'd love to grow something under it too.

I did get a really wonderful catalog today (what a treat with all the snow here!) Whiteflower Farm...one of the best armchair gardening I've had so far this winter!!! I will definately buy from them for the info in the catlog alone! But, I do have a plant for you to check out that I really liked in the catalog.

Pulmonaria, or lungwort, a shade lover,easy, the catalog says it makes a lovely underplanting for ferns, hostas.

Raspeberry Splash...raspberry-pink blooms early, but silver spotted leaves (really striking!!)

Mrs. Moon....rosy buds that turn pink and age to blue....

Just looking at the photos, they look really pretty and i think they'd look great planted together.

They have a website, if you are interested it's:

whiteflowerfarm.com

Heuchera,

BTW-thanks for the flower ideas in another thread!!

What will you do to that lawn when the kids outgrow it? What is your dream garden?

Are you in the UK? My inlaws live in Norwich.

Barb,

That is one of the nicest plants, not only the
pretty flowers, but the leaves are nice the rest
of the summer, and the silver dots are just the cutest things....
And they spread (or the clump) gets bigger each year, I do clip a few flowers for bouquets, which makes them flower longer, but then I let them go
and they reseed.... in the spring I can see all the babies around the clump..

I keep it in the shade, moist in the spring.....

Weezie

Weezie,

How tall do they get? I imagine they are small, since they suggest you plant them *under* the hostas. I think the two varieties would look nice together

Last spring I tillered up a 30 x 40 foot area that was beautiful grass and planted wild flowers. This year I've got to fine tune it. I've had a terrible time keeping weeds out of it. I did have one beautiful, 6 foot tall, sunflower volunteer. It just needs a lot more work.

Hi Barb H.,
Thanks for all the great ideas. I have a small retaining wall (one brick high) that goes around my maple so I can backfill it a bit. I think I will try some of those plants you suggested, I'll have to check and see if they'll live in zone 9. Sheri also suggested the money plant in a different thread, which would look pretty. I haven't had much luck with hostas yet (darn snails! ) but I do have a few popping up. Maybe this will be my year for the hostas, I just have to keep on those darn snails. My dad gave me a bunch of killer snails (also in another thread but they eat young brown snails and their larva) so hopefully between them eating away and me picking the adults out, I can win over the snails.

I will check out that website and order a catalog if I can (if its not too late!) Thanks for all the info. Good luck with your raised veggie garden. Maybe one of us will get it done this year!

Thanks Weezie for the info on the Mrs. Moon. It sounds really pretty. Hopefully it will like zone 9 and I can find some around here.

Epimedium varieties are a great plant for dry shade. They have sweet flower , leaves that saty green for a very long time into the winter.

They are so strong that they can hold their own against euyonmous!

I have not tried them under a maple.

Pulmonarias are wonderful. They add alot of texture to hosta plantings.

Sherri,

What sort of seeds did you use? I've bought the wildflower stuff that you shake...do you know what I'm talking about? They are in a canister...and I got a lot of weeds with them too, when I've used them in the past.

Or, did you plant seed packets of different varieties? It would propably make a difference with weeds.

I bought some of that stuff you shake....and shook it all over the grass of the apartment complex we used to live in about 10 years ago! The grass would be carpeted with such pretty little flowers!

By the way, yes you can still request a catalog from White flower Farms. They have some beautiful plants. I can't wait!!

white flower farms

Barb,

I live in Walsall in the west midlands,about 90miles north of Norwich.

The first thing i plan to do after ripping up the lawn is to dig a pond for the wildlife,hopefuly gets lots of slug munching froggies,i would also like to add some island beds,and plant more shrubs,in the hope of creating more shaded areas,as most of my fav plants are shade lovers.
After all that,with no more threat from flying balls,i plan to add a proper GH,to replace the plastic one i use at the mo.
Half the fun of gardening is in the planning.

Barb H, I planted seeds friends gave me. What I deal with isn't exactly weeds. Someone told me it's some sort of oat. It will take over my entire yard. It's not hard to pull up, just time consuming. It rolls up like a carpet if it's not too dry. The roots are shallow. It is just very invasive. I think the more flowers I get planted out there, the less oat there will be.

Barb H,
I have my Mrs. Moon under a Korean lilac bush called Miss Kim....(last lilac's I swear that bloom). I don't think I'd put it "under" a hosta,
do you have hosta's??? I have 3, 2 of the same type and 1 white, and they are bruiser's.........BIG, and they take up alot of space.... it would have to be way~way in front of the hosta if I would plant mine near one...
Mine are in a reasonable wet area in spring and fall, drier side towards summmer....Morning sun..?
I had a Bergenia x smithii next to it, but that one wasn't likin' the area... 3 years there and it was demising!! I took that out and not placed it anywhere's yet....
but The Mrs. Moon is completely happy????
Such a happy flower to see at that time of year...
Now, maybe if you had the smaller hosta's, they have some of the cutest little one's, and that would be okay, I'd think together, not such a big brute to over power it in a year or two.........

Weezie

As far as the heighth, I'm not sure, but they're
not very tall at all, 6" of leaves, 8"~10" with the flower stem, I'd go with the shorter heighth first, the flower stalks aren't there long...

My one personal feelings on those canister seed shaker things, I now look to see if they have anything in there that resembles Yarrow or white Achillea....that's a weed!! That crowds out the nice guys... If it has it on the canister, it stays on the shelf!!! (they are a pretty flower, but not in a setting where you are trying to grow other plants too, they are too aggressive)

Weezie

Gardem Gal, I just ordered a catalog. I'm going to try to plant like flowers in groups this year. A bunch of white in one area, a bunch of blue in one area, and so on. I think that will be pretty.

Sherri, I think that will look really neat. I love the way the catalogs "group" the plants for you and give you a planting guide. Its so much to imagine what it will look like in your yard.

I went to Wal-Mart and picked up some seeds, gerber daisy, black-eye susans, and some cilantro, and a starter tray. We'll see how well they do and maybe I'll start my veggies this way too. I've never had much luck before but I think this is my year!

Weezie,

It's hard to judge how small or large a plant is when looking at it from the catlog. And, me being a newbie, I'm going to be bound to make mistakes...just glad I can get a head's up here first!

I did have hostas...I don't know if I still do or not, now! The flowerbeds were soo overrun, I had to do a purge. I doubt the soil has been improved in years. I pretty much tore everything but the lillies of the valley, some daylillies, some peonies and the tulips and daffodils.

I tried to grow some annuals last spring...sweetpeas, zinnias, but the seeds didn't take very well.

I did buy two hydrangeas, one pink, one blue and some herbs, and two lantana plants. Some scented geraniums, and red/white geraniums.

You're gonna LOVE the catalog!!!

When you get it, let me know how ya like it, if you remember! I shared it with my dad today, and he still has it, he enjoyed paging through it so much!

Barb,
Even someone who gardens for a bit can be fooled,
or lead astray I should say, it's hard to judge..

I'll give you an example,
I bought some german statis....
I had never grown that plant,
I have grown the annual and I love that plant,
So I bought one, this one was a perennial......
Never grew it before but thought what the heck.

I looked at the info, and mainly the height
it said it was....I'm trying to remember but
something like 24", Now, for the garden I was
putting it in, in front I wanted short, in the middle I wanted medium, you get the idea,
so, 24" is reasonabley tall, so I put it in the middle.
Weelllllllllllllllll the lesson to this gardener was, you need to grow it first before you have a clue.... :rolleyes:
The leaves are somewhat small to the ground, like, I'm trying to think of something common,
like dandelion's...... forms a clump, long leaves come out, but the height is in the flower stalk, not from the entire plant... So, I put some things that said they were a bit shorter in front of them, but because the part that needs to get the sun was so close to the ground on the german statis it got somewhat shaded by the plant in front of it.
Does that make any sense?????
Things can be misleading until you grow the plant, and become experienced with it.......

(Unless you see them at a friends garden, or the actual plants in an actual picture.)

Gardening is full of mistakes, and full of joys'
We learn from our mistakes as we go along, and that's how we learn, for fear of doing it again!

And trust me, some of the plants they are selling, it cracks me up, because we know them as
weeds, literally, and even though they have pretty flowers, they start selling them, and it's such a shame, that they will sell you something without saying exactly what their tendancy's are.

I remember remarking to one of the places I go strictly for perennials, always a good, healthy plant and selection there, and I came acrossed one, can't remember what it was for the life of me, but the owner was right there, and I made the remark to him, picking up the plant, "The plants they're selling now adays" and he looked at me, and I looked at him, he knew what it was, but,
he said "hey, that's the market......"

So, it's all trial and error, but it's the fun of learning, the sunshine, making something grow and flower, picking the flowers and enjoying the good feelings!!!!

Weezie

Barb, The other thing that'll drive you nuts when you're looking through those catalogs too is,
when you see this pretty flower and that pretty flower and they're right side by side, and you think, oh, wouldn't that look pretty together,
until you look and find out that one blooms in
May/June and the other blooms August...
It's frustrating...

Weezie

I always read all the information given on the plants tag. I sure don't want to plant anymore weeds in my garden. But one thing I've found out for myself is that local stores and garden centers will sell plants that aren't even for the local growing zone. They should be tagged though, and if not, I would ask. I can't for the life of me figure out whey a Lowe's in Monroe, NC would be selling flowers that only grow in Alaska, but they will and do. As far as everything being perfect in a garden, it won't, and I think that's the fun of gardening. Like I mentioned before, I had one huge, tall, thick sunflower shoot up right in the middle of my garden. It ws out of place, but the birds and I loved it. It was way to tall for the area, but quite a conversation piece. "Why'd you plant sunflowers out here?"

Weezie,

You make a great point! I've often placed plants willy nilly because I thought the colors work only to find out I didn't do my homework! I used to think I was being *creative*

It pays to do your homework, as I'm finding out!!

I am hoping once things start thawing out to take pictures of the bare areas and maybe post them here to get people's thoughts and ideas about what I should do.

And, as you know, sometimes the mistakes we make are our best teachers.....LOL....ya know...I THOUGHT that those shade/sunny things didn't apply to me....and then wondered why my sun loving flowers died or just plain fizzled under the shady areas!

LOL, Why do I do these things?????

Barb,
Because those wonderful, beautiful, mesmorizing, gorgeous smelling beauties have a way of spinnin' our heads and makin' us want to plant more!!!

And puts us into a gardening trans!!!! <img border="0" alt="[perplexed]" title="" src="graemlins/confused.gif" />

Weezie