Your first garden, how exciting! I can see you have put a lot of thought into your plans. It's great that you have sketched the area and considered the sun/shade exposure for the garden.

Generally, with the potted ferns, groundcover, monkey grass and a flowering plant for the sunny corner, I think you are on track. But I caution against the bougainvillea on the wall in the 4-inch space. For one, bougainvillea needs full sun to bloom. (same with canna) Secondly, these are viciously thorny, and most are huge sprawling shrubs and will painfully infringe on your sidewalk. So unless you know the exact name of a thornless, slender, wimpy, shade loving bougainvillea, find another vine for this spot. I've never grown one myself, but clematis comes to mind.

I don't know your climate zone -- do you get freezes? If not, consider a dwarf Hibiscus rosa-sinensi, Tibouchina urvilleana, or perhaps Brugmansia for the sunny corner. You will have to prune the brug to shape it to the corner, but they are quite malleable. You could put canna there, but they go dormant in winter, kind of boring without something else to look at.

After you clear away the weeds, be sure to prepare your soil thoroughly before you plant anything, that is your greatest predictor of success. Work in some compost or other amendment, maybe some steer manure. Also add some slow-release fertilizer such as Osmocote at planting time. After planting, finish with an application of a weed-preventer such as Amaze or Preen, then top with a layer of mulch. Don't skip any of these steps!

Good luck, and be sure to post pictures.

I am sure others may have some additional suggestions, you have come to the right place.

Catkim, thank you so much! I had no idea I had to do those steps before I planted. I knew I had to take the weeds out but I didn't know about the weed-preventor. The Clematis you mentions looks like what I want for the fence, its beautiful!

I am in Texas, so the only time it would freeze would be around February or March. If it freezes it'll only be for a couple of days. I also looked up the other 3 plants and fell in love with all 3, especially Tibouchina urvilleana!

I am still trying to find different types of plants that I would be able to have in the southeast corner, where there is partial to little light.

Thank you again! If anyone has any suggestions please let me know! I am definitley open to ideas! :D

A couple of design questions before we get to plant selection: Are you happy with those brick patios (maybe more accurately called landings)? Do they actually need to be there at all? The shapes seem disjointed and are not that elegant seen from this angle; perhaps they make more sense on the site. But if you are going to change any of that, it would be best to make that an early step.

Second, I have my doubts about the wisdom of planning your design around tree stumps. Tree stumps can be removed, and if they are not removed they will rot out in time. Must they stay?

Third, the virtues of plants in pots are very limited outdoors (unless, like me, you just like pots for their own sakes and CHOOSE to make more work for yourself). Indoors you have no choice, but outdoors, anything you can put in the ground will be better off there. It will require less watering and have far more nutrients and root zone available than in a pot. So, if you want something to vine down the trunks, you might also consider whether you can plant something at the base of the stumps to vine UP them.

Finally, the tree stumps suggest that previous owners of this place saw a need to plant trees. If you also see a need for a tree (shade, privacy, view...?), plant it first.

As for getting to know plants, it is great to get recommendations but I think the very best thing you can do is to plan a nice long visit to some of your local nurseries. They will likely have shade and sun sections (at least a good nursery likely will), and they will only carry plants that will work for your climate. Read plant tags, and even write down plant names to go home and look up on the internet or in a book (libraries are good). Your preferences will be the strongest factor driving the plant selection, within the boundaries of your site, but to formulate preferences you do need to know the options.

I work without both weed preventer and fertilizer, but I also pull a lot of weeds until my groundcover plants grow in. Catkim's experience with a climate similar to yours may mean she is making good suggestions there.

KarinL

Thank you KarinL,

To start, this is my parents old condo; IÂm just renovating it so I can move into something nice and "new". The trees were there when they moved in (before I was even born) and were removed around 4 years ago. I want to start off slow with the garden on the chance that the condos will all be bought out within a year. ItÂs my hope that they arenÂt because itÂs a beautiful location with a wonderful pool and beautiful plants surrounding. This is why I would rather keep the stumps there; also I thought it would be nice to have height difference between the potted plants and the ground. Plus I do like the pots just for their look. :) But just to see, what would you suggest to climb UP the stumps? There is no need for privacy, the fence and the brick walls covers pretty much everything.

As for the bricks, I want to keep one side bricked because my mini grill will fit perfectly. The best side to keep in my opinion is the one on the south side, seeing as the north gets most of the sun.

IÂve been to CallowayÂs in search of plants but the purpose of this message is to gain ideas while I am at work so I can start my planning and have some ideas of plants I might like.

I will be visiting the condo this friday and will take pictures to post, but in the meantime please keep the suggesting coming. :)

The stumps if they are a workable hight have you considered a plank of wood between them? for a small garden seat? it may involve cutting on down a little but if the aim is selling, this will be pretty cheap and adds a structure to the garden, could you put pots on the landings, this would mean that you can take them with you, when you move, but add color and hight to the space, I think this is important because if you get the refit bug you will find it almost impossible to stop! twins and fathers ill health stopped me and this move I insisted on buying a nearly new home, so someone else had to put up the blinds , landscape ect!
have fun

Some of the plants that have been mentioned here are not really winter hardy in Dallas, such as the Bougainvillea and the Tibouchina, but can be grown as annuals. It would probably help you see what appeals to you if you visited one of the local botanic gardens or spent some time at the local nurseries, also pay attention to plantings already around the condo complex.

bougainvillea vines will die in Dallas area coz our winter is a bit cold for them. I ignored the advices and planted two in my backyard which receive direct sunlight all day, but they died. May be you can plant yellow jasmine, they are evergreen with yellow flowers.
Cannas is nice too, it will grow slowly with limited sunlight. If you plant cannas, you can plant some boxwood or some other evergreen hedges, well something evergreen in front of it.

Under the trees, you could plant shade loving plants, could use hosta to plant a circle, and for the inside plant some flowering plants.

Heather, are you talking about a garden seat for people or to place plants on? I really like the idea of putting a board there for height of potted plants.

new2gardening, I LOVE your idea of hostas and then flowering shade loving plants. I don't know much about either of these. Would you be able to tell me some?

Thank you everyone! :D