Gardening ideas

jej2003

17 years ago

This is my first year of trying to make what the previous owners left me look like a garden and am really looking for some ideas. I am a big fan of colorful showy flowers that jump out at you, but still need to have a green backdrop during the colder winter seasons (be it a hedge or what ever). The layout I currently have includes a few rhododendrons, a few conifers, some butterfly bushes, tulips, daffodils, day lilies all strewn into one giant mess. ({{gwi:18513}}). I am looking to line the driveway with Day lilies and then with an Aster behind them but have no idea for the rest of the garden. Anyone have any good ideas how to fix this mess? I can provide actual pictures (tomorrow morning)if that'd help.

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Comments (6)

Brent_In_NoVA
17 years ago
umm...did you link the correct picture? If you are trying to landscape a highway of speeding cars then you have your work cut out for you. ;-) I have to admit that the idea of soldier rows of daylilies and asters does not sound that appealing to me.

- Brent
jej2003
Original Author
17 years ago
Brent,
The layout provided was just to show the general layout of the land, sorry that my Art skills aren't up to your standards :).

As I said before this is my first attempt in revamping what is currently there, I saw the layout somewhere online and thought it looked good (it was just a drawing however), but would appreciate any other suggestions.
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I kinda like the grass too. While I love hostas, and in particular I love the variegated ones like you have, I think yours are all too similar in size. Perhaps a nice giant hosta as a focal point would work, maybe even two (of the same variety), on the side towards the driveway. A Komodo Dragon or Humpback Whale or Empress Wu. My heart would really want an Empress Wu La La, lol but I think since you have those lovely variegated hostas already, a plain green/blue one would be a nice backdrop/focal point. One near the point of the right bed (right in the photo) and one further back between the trees. Heck, put a third one on the left too, just to create some continuity. I guess then three of them wouldn't be a "focal point", lol, but it would IMO create some visual interest. And yes, agree with some kind of groundcover like woodland phlox. Green/bloom/living is always preferable to mulch, IMO. And looking at GardenHo's photo, perhaps put in a piece of garden art for interest as well. :) Dee
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chartreuse1
17 years ago
jej2003, you need to click on the "current layout" link in your initial post and see what comes up. Perhaps you'll get a laugh out of it. I did.
Saypoint zone 6 CT
17 years ago
That's a time-lapse picture of me on my John Deere after dark doing the mowing. Teehee.
jej2003
Original Author
17 years ago
reply, haha, well it turns out that my domain expired today so I am working on getting it updated right now. Hopefully in the next hour it will be up....
jej2003
Original Author
17 years ago
Ok, well my domain is still not up so I am going to have to press on without the diagram. Basically, I am looking to put something together that will look green all year long but in the summer/spring really explode with colors. In front of the right side of the house I have an arbor vitae close to the steps and an evergreen hedge directly next to that. There is also a small garden bed (restricted by the sidewalk to the front door) that I currently have tulips and daffodils planted in along with a flowering bush (name escapes me but it gets these really bright pink flowers when it blooms). Immediately to the left side of the stairs I have two rhododendrons basically one behind the other (I am considering moving 1 since it is really lost in the mess there, but don't know where to put it) next to it I have two more of the flowering bush (as on the right) which is then next to another evergreen hedge. Next to the hedge is another arbor vitae. In front of the hedge (which is shaped like half a U) I have a lilac bush (which I planted last year but has not bloomed yet) surrounded by Tulips and daffodils. To the left of this there is another rhododendron and then to the left of that I have some very empty beds and at the end of the bed (probably 40 ft) another rhododendron. On the far right side of the house (in front of a fence) I have another rhododendron and a butterfly bush, followed by a kousa dogwood tree(still very small) and then another butterfly bush and rhododendron pair which are spread over about 40 ft.

Also, in front of the left side of the house and the far right (in front of the fence) I have put in new beds that follow the shape of the stones that are in place (pavers) that provide anywhere from 2 - 3 ft of planting space.

This entire area also gets pounded all day long with Sun.

Ok, so that is it in a nut shell, which probably wasn't all that much help since reading this alone makes it hard to visualize. But the short and skinny is I am looking for ideas on how to add color around the kousa dog wood, flowers that would really help fill in the 2 - 3 ft of beds that I laid in front of the pavers/existing gardens, some ideas on how to make the left side of the house really explode with color (the section that has nothing in it), ideas for near the rhododendrons and butterfly bushes. Basically any ideas at all because I have proven to be on the uncreative side of garden design :).

some links that I really enjoyed on this site:
Link 1
Link 2