Garden suggestions

[Twilight1]

Bought a house in January and now that spring is here, I am looking to do some heavy duty gardening!!

Anyways, the garden in the back yard is going to be veggies, fruit and spices/ herbs. Already got that figured out lol!

The front however, I am looking at various flowers but can't decide. I have bluebells that I absolutely love, and a few daffodils and tulips but that is fine for early spring but I need things for summer and fall. I prefer perennials.

Any ideas? I already have a few rose bushes but am looking at other different plants. I prefer flowers that bloom throughout the season. I live in Southern Ontario and think I am region 4 maybe 5? Not sure for plants...

[SoNaoWat?]

Irises and gladiolas are my mom's favorites. The glads bloom on her and my dad's anniversary. I don't know any other plants really. Sounds like you'll have a beautiful home, congrats!

[KatieC]

I thought perennials bloom once a season? But have you thought about a nice peony? You get gorgeous blooms for a short while, and a really nice bush the rest of the season, and the whole thing goes away for winter. (I put a winter urn on top of the spot for winter and take it off in spring.)

I love irises and glads too - not very successful with glads, but the irises do fabulous in a south garden. Weren't too happy in a northwest spot.

Have fun choosing

[mkats]

Love the suggestions already posted - also want to put in a vote for hydrangeas; they're so pretty and you can play with the colors depending on the acidity of your soil.

[MOIJTO]

Bought a house in January and now that spring is here, I am looking to do some heavy duty gardening!!

Start out small and really make a plan. You can overwhelm yourself not only with the work it requires but the expense. We have lived in our home for almost 10 years and the yard and gardens are still a work in progress.

[orbitz]

Perhaps you'd like to start out with relatively easy to care plants like petunias, marigolds, impatients, etc. Lillies are also good and easy to care for. Dahlias are gorgeous. I've always liked zinneas. Just remember to put tall plants in the back and low plants in the front. Good luck and enjoy your garden.

[taf2002]

Check out the garden stores in your area for free membership in their garden club. I get emails for advance notice of sales, free classes, and special offers only to members. They may be a little pricier than Home Depot but they are a lot more knowledgeble so you'll lose less plants due to inexperience. And you don't have to buy everything there, but today my garden club store is having a petunia sale: $ .50 a plant. I'm going this morning to get some.

[PDilemma]

Make sure that no one in your family has allergies to flowers and plants before you proceed! If someone does, choose carefully so as not to leave them unable to go outside!!

[immoimeme]

Start out small and really make a plan. You can overwhelm yourself not only with the work it requires but the expense. We have lived in our home for almost 10 years and the yard and gardens are still a work in progress.

Second that. Besides, what you put in the first year, you will inevitably want to remove in the 3rd.

Get some cheap annuals that bloom all summer and stick them in pots. That way you can move the pots around to see where they really look the best, which will help you with your perma-plan.

[dbell1]

Is it shady or sunny in the front? Acidic soil? Sandy? Swampy? Normal? How's the front yard? Flat? Lots of foot traffic? Kids?

What's your style? Classic? Modern? Love color? Are you a formal garden lover or a playful type?

I love my perennials - there's shade in the front yard and tons of sun on the side so I have lots of different plants - hollyhocks, hostas, poppies, black eyed susans, columbines - it's all about what you like the best.

I also plant so the seasons give me different blooms. To see the crocus come up after a hard winter and the daffodils bloom, it's awesome. Right now, I've got the daffodils going away and the lilacs starting. 100 bulbs were started inside, went in the gown last weekend and are already starting to sprout.

[Twilight1]

Hey all- I have a lot of gardening experience for roses, lilies, hosta's, clematis etc so don't hold back on ideas for plants. I am a quick study and my plants always do well.

Also I have always had a garden with veggies, and herbs/ spices. so a lot of experience there too.

I just want to branch out and try different things, already transplanted some of my bluebells today and after the daffodils and tulips finish, I will space them out a bit better. They look like they were just slapped together without any thought.

The garden I want to work with is south facing so in full sun for the hotter part of the days. I need plants that due well in more clay like soil but again I have some experience working with soil composition and adding sand, etc. I can also work with aluminum concentrations for blue hydrangea's. The garden is leveled up from the walkway so there is no concerns on traffic in the front. Right now I have one rose bush that is already doing quite well ad I will plant another one of those. Other than the bluebells, tulips and daffodils, I have a space of 2 feet by about 15 feet to play around with.

[orbitz]

Try looking through here for somple plants suggestions: http://www.logees.com/

Logees has been featured on Marthat Stewart Living a couple of times.

[milanessa]

Daylilies. Perennial, can adapt to most soil from heavy clay to sand, grows in Zones 2-9 (and even outside that range) and likes sun. Lots of colors.

[Twilight1]

A friend suggested Nemesia...would that be okay for south Ontario though? She lives out in Victoria, BC so wasn't sure. She loves them though and I saw pictures and they are really pretty.

Lilies are a definite possibility. I loved my lilies at the townhouse but had to leave them there.

[milanessa]

Lilies are a definite possibility. I loved my lilies at the townhouse but had to leave them there.

Daylilies aren't true lilies but they're certainly beautiful.

http://www.extension.umn.edu/distrib...re/DG1106.html

[Twilight1]

Thanks for the link to daylilies. Never planted them before but they sound just like something I would plant.

[rjblue]

Daylilies. Perennial, can adapt to most soil from heavy clay to sand, grows in Zones 2-9 (and even outside that range) and likes sun. Lots of colors.

Daylilies were my first thought too. Stella De Oro is a cute little one that is everblooming and every garden centre stocks it. There are soo many colours and sizes of daylilies that I'm starting to become addicted.

Coreopsis(tickseed) and Gaillardia(blanketflower) are two other very forgiving perennial plants that come in a nice variety of yellows, pinks, oranges and white and they bloom from early June to the first hard frost. They are not formal looking though.

Before you get anything, you need to decide if you want to have a formal garden, showy garden, or old fashioned cottage style garden. Foxgloves look really pretty in the latter style of garden and they bloom for so long they almost seem everblooming.

Southern Ontario is an ideal climate for gardening. It is cool enough for Roses and warm enough for most perennials.

I'd get enough perennials to plant 1/2 my garden this year, and fill in the rest with annuals. Then I'd look to see what I really like in other people's gardens and get some of them in the fall.

eta- Lilies are some of the most glorious blooms that are available. They are really showy at their peak, but they don't bloom for as long as my dayliles, and I had trouble keeping them free of rust, so I don't grow them anymore.

[Twilight1]

rjblue- Thanks for the suggestion of focusing on perennials for just half of the garden and filling it up with annuals and see where that takes me.

I am a huge fan of peonies, double impatiens and marigolds. I also have to continue to wait to see if anything else will sprout up. I found some forget me nots in the back garden and got to get on getting those dug up quickly like the snow on the mountain. I hate that stuff. I hate flowers that end up behaving like weeds.

[ElizabethAnne]

It's so exciting to have a new home and want to have it all done but I would agree that chosing some key perennial plants and filling in with pots and annuals is a good idea for the first year. It will give you a chance to take note of what looks good in your neighbours garden, what you want to move or get rid of in what you have, and figure out the timing. Most perennials only bloom for a few of weeks (you can extend it with different varieties) so you need to figure out the progression that works for your area so there is always something coming. You might want to plant things that bloom at the same time, together, so the focal point in the yard will move as perennials bloom and it's a bigger impact than scattered plants that bloom at the same time. Your colour palette will also migrate. Plants are so expensive now that it's a shame if you get something you end up not liking. Whatever you get you will end up moving it many times (trust me on this one!).

That said: spring bulbs> peonies> bearded iris> lily> hosta> daylily> monkshood> showy stonecrop> chrysanthemums.

I think southern Ontario is ideal for bearded iris. I used to visit on business a lot and noticed the iris being pretty spectacular. A couple of long blooming perennials are Brandon Pink Coral Bells and blue flax. Neither are big wow plants like peonies but they are good accents. I also like veronicas (Crater Lake Blue Veronica), gasplant and Blue Spire Russian Sage.

Have fun.

[Twilight1]

I had no luck when I was an older teen with iris in the garden at my dad's but maybe will have better luck now. Irises and Orchids are my favourite flowers for bouquets.

Off to look up those suggestions ElizabethAnn!!