A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Plants and Flowers Forum What to Plant? *Help!*

Shanbear, you can plant all your veggies in the sun. I'm a zone 3 and have most of the veggies out in the wind and cool weather come May.

You can probably start the early things if you can get into your garden area, such as potatoes, peas radishes, lettuce these don't mind our cool temperatures.

As for shade I'm not too sure about veggies, but there are lots of shade plants, just ask away in the gardening in shade part of the forum.

Thanks, Rosepetal- I'll be busy buying some veggies this weekend for sure.

...I've also posted this in the Shade section hoping to catch a few more eyes. Thanks for the idea!

Well, I'm a shade zone 3-4. I've planted bleeding hearts, hostas, silvermounds, goat's beard, armeria, columbines, painted daisy's, maiden pinks, coral bells, astilbes and more I can't think of for perennials. Burning bush, hydrangeas and alpine currants for bushes.

Just check the tags at the nursery if you are in doubt.

roses are beautiful for sunlight. Just be careful buying roses in your zone. I find that rugosas and floribundas do the best.

Do you have a pic of the area or the dimensions you want to fill?

Thank you sooo much for the list Tamara. I will check the tags but it's nice to know what has worked for someone else in my type of zone. The roses are a great suggestion!

I will have a picture after tonight (I will take one after I get home from work.)

Shanbear, stay away from tea roses, I can hardly get any to grow even in a container.

Yup, hybrid teas die on me as well, they can't take the cold.

Really? Brutal. That's a shame- they are sooo pretty too.

They're one of those "perfect" roses. I love them too buttttt.....

"but..." is right. Don't you just LOVE our conditions? *Insert sarcasim here*

Have you tried the roses at walmart before? I saw some hybrid teas for just $3.99, even if (touch wood) they fail, it's not that much of a budget killer! I know there are very tough roses, have you looked into some native roses (any rose introduced before confed. or 1867)

We can plant roses kennyso, just not the "perfect" ones. I have 3 on the go they're doing well, but I'd love to have.....well you know.

"Be satisfied with what you can have and not what you can't."

$3.99? Well Kenny, you can't complain with that. I should look into that- might as well. They are beautiful; and I do want them so bad. Thanks!

I buy most of my roses at wal-mart for 3.99 in the bags. I've gotten a few surprises also, sometimes the wrong coloured rose is put in the bags.

I've bought yellow roses and got pink. I've bought red roses and gotten white.

I've had that happen to me a lot in the past too. I guess that's the perk with shopping at Wal Mart; you never know what you're going to get!

Hey Penny! I've been chatting a lot with ksgardnr and we came to the conclusion that Hostas would be a great idea. I'm for sure getting some. I didn't manage to get a picture last night as it was snowing lightly with a mix of fog... I'm going to see if I can get a better one now.

So the weather was pretty bad this weekend so we weren't able to head to the nursery... we will for sure this week though- the weather is suppose to be perfect. I'll be posting some pictures of what I plant. Thanks again everyone for all your imput!

Waiting for pics and info. What is your frost date Shanbear?

Hope this is of some help...
Have you considered a perennial border? Like this one, for example, featuring peonies, lilac,primulas, etc. I add to it every year: this year I'lll be adding more irises to rim around the lawn to make a yellow border.

(click on photo to enlarge)

I took this picture early this morning, just shortly after sunrise.