A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion Landscape trials and triumphs I need suggestions for my perennial garden...

I have had stuff in there before, but usually end up 'weeding' it out.. grrr.. So I am starting over.. I have thoroughly weeded it and am going to roundup all the grass/weeds.. put down that heavy duty black stuff to keep the weeds from growing and then mulch. But, before I do that, I need to get my plants in.. I have Columbine, two hostas and some sort of sage plant in there now.. that has survived my enthusiastic weed pulling sessions.. lol What are some good ideas for plants? The area is about 14' by 4' at the biggest area.. it is a half moon shape.. I would like some color all thru the spring and summer.. my columbine is blooming nicely now.. and my hostas are getting bigger.. Ideas/suggestions please? Thank you so much!!

By heavy duty black stuff are you referring to landscape fabric in rolls?

Wouldn't it be easier for you to put the LF down and cut slits for plants rather than the other way around? If you use LF you wouldn't need to use round-up. There is a two week turn around on planting after round-up treatment(at least it was the only time I used it) and use caution if you are using that where plants that you want exist.

Is your perennial garden shade, sun or a mix?

Yes, I was referring to the landscape fabric.. the name was just escaping me at the time I posted. Sorry. :P And I wasn't sure which would be easier, putting my plants in and laying the fabric around them, or doing it as you said. I have never used it before. I have read though, not to just put it down expecting it to kill the weeds.. which is why I am planning on using the roundup. I haven't read the specs yet on it, but I did figure there would be some type of waiting period before planting new plants after using it. And I plan on covering my plants that are there now before I spray the rest of the garden area.. and will /try/ to do it on a windless day. :)

The garden area is right at the end of our mobile home.. it gets mid day/early evening sun.. Completely shaded in the mornings and partial shade in the later evening due to a tree we have. ;)

Personally I hate landscape fabric but I have used it before. It's easier to lay it down then cut the holes to plant.

If nothing is planted yet, you could til it up first to kill the weeds. Roundup and such can stay in the soil and damage or kill your plants.

I have astilbes, bleeding hearts, silver mounds, hostas, painted daisies, armeria, dianthus, goat's beard, coral bells and delphiniums in my shade garden.

I also have a burning bush and peegee hydrangea for shrubs.

I'm thinking a bleeding heart would look good there. Also some japanese painted fern if it is shady enough. Good luck with your garden.

Pink Horse:
Some considerations on landscape fabric: It does stop weeds but has more drawbacks then it's worth for weed prevention.
A 2-3" layer of fine shred hardwood mulch (not cyprus) would be a much better choice for soil, plants and curb appeal. Use cedar if available. It repels insects, smells great after a rain and remains nice looking over at least several years. Since you've already weeded, put the mulch down and as you aquire plants move the mulch aside, plant and put the mulch back.

Avoid round-up. It's best used for weeds in sidewalk cracks. You don't know how far the roots of your established plants have traveled and you need to be as concerned with the roots as any plant material above ground.

Consider planting a coleus next to each perennial. Choose the coleus with a main color to match the perennial blooms color. As each perennial flower fades you still have some color in the garden. A few well placed coleus amid the various shades and textures of perennials look like little jewels.

For my shade side, I prefer the Salvias........I dont use the Landscape stuff......

The easiest way I find to garden with perennials , is to make my beds about 4 feet wide, so I can work on them from both sides........I hoe them every week, and weed...
It can get nasty if you dont do it weekly...........
Phlox is a good perennial for all year bloom.

Well thank you all for the input. Maybe I WILL just forgo the landscape fabric and use the mulch instead.. I will try to find some Cedar.. I am sure I can find it at Lowes.

About the Roundup.. I already did it. :( The specs on it says you can safely plant 1 day after application.. which I think is a bit soon.. but I will just have to wait and see how things go. It is supposed to rain for the next week, according to hubby, so I hurried up and sprayed the garden. I covered each of my plants individually while I did it so I didn't get any overspray. Hopefully they will be ok. If not, I only had a few, and I can always start over.

I like the Coleus idea! I have had them in planters before and have always loved them. Thank you for that idea!! I am excited to get started.. if it does actually rain the next week, that gives me some time to hit the local greenhouses and Lowes to find some pretties!

I doubt I can get away with planting shade loving varieties.. I wish I could. Are Columbine shade lovers? I am just curious because my big beautiful plants have tons of blooms, but they are all 'hanging their heads' so to speak. The blooms are facing downward which I thought was odd. I have never noticed them doing that in previous years..

I use layers of newspaper under my mulch. 3 pages thick. For the first year of a new garden bed, helps kill those left over weeds, then bio~degrades over winter.

Columbines are shade lovers, so are Jacob's Ladder.

Thank you Tamara.. I am still wondering how in the world I ended up with Columbine in my garden.. geez. I feel like a dork. Poor things, they are hiding from the sun. Maybe I should move them.. I wish I had more shade.

Columbine can take sun. Since they're short lived keep them where they are. They don't like to be disturbed. When seedlings pop up plant them where they get a bit of afternoon shade. They bloom in all but dense shade.

I have columbine planted in my full sun butterfly/hummer garden. But, they are mulched with untreated grass clippings. They are planted on the side that gets some P.M. shade from larger plants.

I have columbines in full sun as well.

Hmm.. well other than them hanging their heads.. they are beautiful.. nice big healthy plants and lots of blooms.. I suppose I will just leave them alone..

Did you notice them hanging their heads before or after spraying roundup?

Its not uncommon for columbine heads to droop, especially as they age.

Keep the soil moist since to dry a soil can cause drooping blooms. These isn't enough water to draw up into the stems to keep them rigid which in turn keeps the flowers facing out. High winds or a beating rain can cause the stem tip to bend just below the bloom with the same result.

They were doing it before the roundup.. and I will try watering them. I figured they would be ok, but it has been dry.. we never did get that rain hubby was predicting.

Good news regarding the roundup, everything I wanted to keep is fine. I am so glad. I was kind of worried.. even though I covered each plant/hosta with a towel when I was spraying.

Although it's an herb, I mostly use chives for their flowers in my perennial garden. I place a mound here and there, and when their purple flowers bloom they're a delight!

Peonies also sound like they'd work well in your garden since there isn't too much shade.

Thanks for all the great ideas!! So far I have Sage, my columbine which are pretty much just foliage now.. I bought a black eyed Susan and a Coreopsis (sp?), but I am not sure if I am going to use the Coreopsis in that garden or around my new pond. I also bought some seeds that I am going to start.. I got Red Poppys and Giraldia (sp?)... I need to get those seeds started.. I LOVE Poppys and the Giraldia is pretty too.. orange and yellow flowers on a compact, mound type plant. So I thought that would go well down in front somewhere.. I should post some pics of that garden here.. so you all can see it. ;)

And about the Peonies, don't those get great big or not? I have never had them, so I am not sure.

Ok, here is a picture of my Perennial garden.. it has more weeds growing as I haven't been doing anything in it.. and it looks much smaller and sort of crooked.. *laugh* Funny, it doesn't look that way in person..

Thanks Penny.. the area is really bare right now.. though I did plant two new plants since the picture.. a black eyed susan back in the right hand corner.. actually, I think it was sitting there.. so yeah.. and the little blue flowered thing up toward the front.. it is a viola of some kind.

looks good! i love hostas!!! are ya gonna add more?

my columbines are on the outter shirts of my shade area so the get part shade,

I love two tone hostas, draws your eyes right into the gardens.

I have columbines in full sun. Never had a problem except for the foilage is sparse but the blooms are plentiful.

I also love the two toned Hostas.. the plain green ones just seem so drab to me after having these... plus I know this variety grows well in full sun. I am not planning on adding more Hostas... though I did get one of that variety for beside my pond. :wink: It is so teeny tiny compared to those in my Perennial garden.. LOL It's so cute.

My Columbine have always done just fine, except this year, the blooms were facing downward.. not up. I guess it is due to the light exposure.. I have no idea what else it would be. Someone suggested that I water them more, but that didn't really make a difference.

I will probably start a new thread with my Perennial garden as the topic once I get new pics. I have added several plants.. though some are annuals. I just wasn't finding what I wanted in Perennials.. and I kept finding annuals, then I would buy them, get them home and have no where to put them.. so I just stuck them in there.. it is looking really nice now though.

I added two blue/purple Delphiniums, a red Geranium with the two toned leaves, two different colors of Dianthus, an interesting little shrub I got at Lowes with pretty red flowers on it... I am not sure what it is called... and a red miniature Carnation. (Did you know those smell like Cinnamon???) Very cool indeed!!!

You would think I am a big fan of red, wouldn't you?? lol And really I am not. But those flowers just really caught my eye, so I had to bring them home with me. I think I need a bit more splash of yellow maybe.. who knows what it will end up by the time summer is done. I am currently baby-ing some Poppies I started from seeds.. those will go in there as well. And also some Gaillardia I started from seeds.. I hope they do well. I have never started anything from seeds before, so I am very excited about these.

I bought yellow coreopsis and yellow carnations a few days ago because I wanted to add more yellow as well.

Some of my columbines are facing downward as well, they call it 'granny bonnet'.

I have a red carnation(I think it's called Desmond), I never smelled it before, can't wait for it to bloom to find out if mine is the same.

tHAT IS SO CUTE......

b

Ohhh yellow carnations would look pretty.. and I have a coreopsis here that I was going to put by my pond, but is still in the pot.. I might move it over to my other garden and see how it looks. :wink:

Tamara, when you say they call it 'granny bonnet'.. is that a variety of columbine, or is that just something the sometimes do? I have never noticed mine doing it before.. and mine are 3 years old I think.. maybe just 2.. I can't remember.. bleh.

I looked at my red Carnation today to see what it was.. it is Can Can Red.. I can't wait for yours to bloom too! So you can see if it smells like Cinnamon.. I couldn't believe it.. we were at the garden center and my 10 year old said, "MOM, you have to smell this flower.. it smells like Cinnamon!!" and I thought ok, whatever.. and I smelled it.. and man was she right!! It is so cool!

And Dodge, what is cute?

Granny bonnet is the variety(common name), they hang completely down.

The heat might be making your columbines droopy. I have a regular columbine by the edge of my pave and it looks sickly, I'll move it in the fall.

In regards to the columbine. Did you grow from seed or plant. The reason I'm asking is that they are short lived and the first year only produce foliage. The prime years for flowers are their 3 and 4th years. And if you bought the plant chances are it was 3 or 4 years old. The fifth and sixth years you might get droopy because the plant is loosing it's vigor. Just a thought.

Another thought is that your summers are much warmer than canadian summer I think so maybe more shade would be useful for improving the performance of your columbine. Just a thought. I know when I moved one that I had placed in full sun it did much better in the dappled shade of a tree.

You may be right or wrong tk........I had a columbine here for all the years I was married and it disappeared last year..Red / yellow.

Now we have discussed that theory many times on here and some agree, some disagree.....
To be on the safe side, I am saving seed and planting it yearly.....Wont have to do without..

Thanks ...sorry to butt im

b

Your input is always welcome. I'm just repeating what I've read and in this case what happened to me. I bought some columbine from wal-mart and it bloomed great that year. I got a few blooms the next year and then it didn't come back. since I harvest my seeds so there were none to fall on the ground and my ground even now doesn't lend itself to self seeding I'm assuming that what I read is correct. But that's not a 100% guarentee by any stretch.

I wonder how I missed that discussion. That's happened a couple of times recently. I wonder if my mind has taken another step into lala land...

If you have a columbine you really like then always save seed and reseed a few each year. Mind you that's how I got over run with certain perennials.

With me since I have different types of columbine there is no assurance that I'll get the same color from the seeds. They are suppose to mutate readily. Again that's from what I've read. I know it's true of zinnia and I think it may be true of portulaca's too because I've harvested from mixed beds of each and not ended up with the colors I expected lol.

I love the mental picture of perennials mowing you down in the garden lol. It's cute.

Was it OH la la Land?

b

Wow.. lots of input on my Columbine.. Firstly, I do not think it is the Granny Bonnet variety, because I have never noticed them doing this before.

I did buy them as plants.. small plants.. not even in gallon containers, though I don't remember where I got them. I have had beautiful blooms on them every year so far.. and I have never harvested the seeds, though this year I did.. so maybe I better spread some around there.. or maybe I won't.. It IS a full sun area, so maybe I should try them in a different spot.. *wishes for more shade*

I need more perennials.. I just don't know what I want.

shade can be provided by bushes and taller plants or even garden statuary and other fun stuff.

tk
came out of la la land

Thanks TK, but unfortunately the columbine is up front in the garden, so there really isn't any room to put anything in front of it to create shade.

Try making a mini trellis over its head......LIke plastic fencing ..put up on sticks over its head.
Instant trellis .....I do that alot.

b

Hey Pink Horse,

Here are a couple of pics of some sedum, jew, and stuff that are doing really well in shade/sun. Of course, you can see that MY columbines are pretty puny.

The sedum is evergreen, and the jew come back, even after our late freezes this year.





I love your flower bed! Keep us updated!