A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Banter Hall Gardener's Chat Pix of my flower bed last year ~ input welcome !

Well i thought i'd post a few pix of my 1st attempt @ a garden last year I am open to any suggestions or tips to improve it this year ! Before we moved here it was all just CRP ground, we moved our house in from another location and everything so this ground is really fun to work with - not ! Along to the left a bit of the bed is an enbankment and i planted some Daffodils and they are coming up I want to put something more along there too but not sure what ? We have ALOT of clay in our soil and no trees yet for shade so it's a tough one ...... as you can tell I like bold bright colors for my flowers

thanks for looking :)

PRETTY!

I like tall plants with bright color and I have clay soil here too!

I think I'd do some really tall plants in the middle like Cosmos! They are drought tolerant and like bad conditions...then going out on each side I'd do some Zinnias, and then something a little shorter like(draws a blank) :D, then I'd def. do some portulacas around the edges as the lowest level. They are SO bright and cheery!

But it looks really nice the way you had it, I just like taller plants that are really noticeable.

yes thank you I purposely did pretty much all annuals my 1st year cuz i knew i would want to change it I do want some taller ones to kinda make it fuller ~ thanks ! I am going to write those down :)

I thought the same about height. Zinnias sounds nice, they are what I had in mind too. I have lots of seeds, I may do some this year too.

that sounds like a cool idea thanks Yep that is our house ~ it was just a little 2 bedroom that we bought for dirt cheap and moved in and added on and re-sided it :) hoping this summer to get my Cranberry colored shutters put on the windows ! eventually we are putting a deck off to the right in front of the big living room window :)

Wow, Beautiful!! I love it!
I know so much sun you would get, PLANT sunflowers.... =]

love your gazing ball!! your flower bed is realy pretty! i like the bold colors , just wondering if your eventualy gonna have a flower bed going all the way up your driveway? i think that would look nice , ya gotta nice long driveway there, or some trees going up the drivway?

Love the property and your house. BEAUTIFUL!!!!

Since you are doing annuals a Canna would be good in clay and blazing sun. That would give you some height fast and color. With your color scheme a Canna Tropicanna would be beautiful. The leaves are colorful and it blooms a fluffy orange flower.

I have a pic of it in my album.

Very pretty and bright. Cranberry shutters are really going to make your house pop out.

Are you going to add trees soon?

Coreopsis would be nice in there as well, my eyes go right to the yellow you have already.

Joni~~ I love all the bold colors!! They really stand out with all the green land surrounding it,, Geezzz I wish I had that much land to play in the dirt with!!

we actually went out into our field and dug them up out of the ground one by one I handpicked each one lol.... If you have ever heard of Iowa's Loess Hills, well we live in them & have lots of rocks in the fields ~ especially all the CRP land that can't be touched for anything but conservation :) Evan's dad owns about 1000 acres up here so it's fun

yep i was already thinking Coreopsis too ! And we are TRYING to plant trees but they keep dying on us... can't figure out why either ? We are thinking now we may end up buying them already a few years old & established.

Cindy, my parents dig those kinds of rocks out of their fields! I have them around my flower bed that I made last year and have access to tons of them! They have huge piles of them everywhere! If you lived closer I would bring you a load over!

Love that bed..
It is verrrrrry cute...

My one thing that I would ask you,
*after everone said for you to get some height*
is........

Which way does your sun go?
Like over it, side to side~ long ways
or width ways???

Because you have to pay attention to the
sun's traveling pattern when you plan those tall ones.
or else they'll shade those on the back side of them...
*I get that alot with a fence line I plant on*

But I really love the petunia's..

I would keep that bed for annuals, and
do another something or other for some prennials..

I have prennials in all the beds, and made one specifally
just for annuals..
Here's mine..(annuals)
Just to give you an idea for all tall ones...
(might need stalking, cause I have the fence to tie them to)

thanks Weezie :) when looking @ the garden i am facing East... so the sun comes up behind it and sets in front of it

I already have something in the works to turn that bed into my perennial bed and i have another bed I am starting for my annuals plus putting annuals in my containers ~ so we were already thinking alike there lol. Yeah i was thinking of getting a couple panels of picket fencing to put behind the garden to help w/the tall ones ? Plus i'm gonna get an old wheelbarrow or some type of garden decor to put in there also so it's not just all flowers.....

I posted that so she would know sorta
what I meant by watching the way the sun goes..

Mine goes from one end (by road) and to the other
end long~length ways...

but I do have stuff behind those sunflowers,
*the shape of the bed is a long retangle..*
so, I just put stuff that loves shade on the back
side..like Coleous, pansy's, etc...

I am really rotten when it comes to E,N,S, and W...
But I actually think I got this one...

I think, if I am right in my barrings..
Where it ends up with morning sun and noon sun on one side..
and noon sun and evening sun on the other...

yes ma'am you are right but really the whole thing gets pretty much the same sun cuz it's not that big and not real wide & as of last season it was all flat, now this year when i put taller plants in then i guess i better take the sun's position into factor when choosing what to put in front of it etc.

thanks again

Yep, but as soon as you start adding toooo of tall plants
somewhere's in the mix, you end up getting shade
from the taller plants..
when the sun goes from one side to the other...

When you have the smaller shorter one's, they then
all get the same sun....

I sure like the way it looks right now..
I've been wanting to do a short one myself,
after having the tall one for quite some time...

You know what I think that would be cute in sandwiched
between the petunia's would be
Sweet Alyssum~Lobularia maritima (Brassicaceae)
They come in white and purple and a pink*ish*

and some pansies or viola's...

I think a few taller plants would make the flowerbed stand out more, and be more prominent from a distance.

Ya know how about putting a bird bath in the middle and putting plants to attract birds/butterflies/hummingbirds?

y

yep i've been looking for a couple weeks now for that "perfect" ornament to put in there Like a tricycle or an antique chair i could whitewash, something i just have not found it yet :)

thanks for your help really !! I love all this input i'm getting, i have it all written down

I will see what i can get around here and go from there, i think i'm gonna get some Daisies too to put in there, i love love love the Double Begonia's i had last year so I know i'll be getting more of those too ! so many choices it's hard to pick !

Hi Joni_P...

i dont have any clever advice coz i really m not familiar with your weather conditions... but i do agree that u will need to plant some trees...in fact u can plant lotz of 'em with all that space u have... oh wow Joni_P...i really..really envy u da space u have!!! Think...there r so many beautiful trees u can try... n i think it would b good to plant fruit or nut trees n u can harvest da nuts n fruits when they start produceing...

All da best in your endeavor to create your dream garden!!

what a great spread you have, and i too.....LOVE THE ROCKS!
how about a prairie type garden, with maybe....lots of coneflowers?

yeah i was looking @ coneflowers too :) they are pretty and look like they are pretty hardy