Extreme beginner here...any good websites?

18 years ago

Just bought our first single family house in November and want to work on getting some flowers/shrubs etc. etc. into our yard. I know NOTHING about this, so does anyone have a good place for me to start looking? We live in Mass, so I Know I have to watch my choices. ANy webiste links would be great. THere is a good size mulched area in front of our house, but little to no plants/shrubs are there. So I am really starting from scratch.

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Comments (4)

sedum37
18 years ago
Nadine33 - welcome you've come to the right place! Right here you'll find a lot of helpful New England gardeners that you can ask questions of who know our particular climate best. There are other garden web sites out there also you can consult - DavesGarden and GardenBuddies, etc. But here you'll find an active group of New Englanders which is important to know what plants will do well here.

Use the search feature to see if your topic has already been asked/answered then you can formulate your questions and ask away here if someone hasn't already started a thread or add to a thread if you have additional questions.

For other web sites than GardenWeb, I came across this site awhile ago with some helpful tutorials (link below):

Sue

Here is a link that might be useful: MyGardenGuide.com Link
mmqchdygg
18 years ago
Yeah, for the most part, we're pretty harmless...

Here's some thoughts that have worked well for me since I was in the same boat last year:

Info: you got that in the previous post.

Cheap purchases:
local town plant sales (find your garden or conservation clubs, they're usually the ones holding them)
your local freecycle group (freecycle.org to find your local one): put up an ad requesting divisions of anything you'd like.
eBay if you're familiar with that route.
look for "favorite garden centers" threads here. Many will direct you to the best places locally, as well as the 'mom & pop' smaller ones.
take a different road whenever you go places; where I live there are a 1/2-dozen homeowners that pot up their own stuff and sell it on the side of the road for good prices!

Swaps: HERE! There are several being organized right now on this forum; just search for 'swap' and you'll likely find one. They're very fun if you're ok with that sort of thing. Don't worry if you haven't got much/anything to share yet; others likely will bring plenty and there will be lots to share.

Welcome to the forums!
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I think it may be worth it for you to hire someone from a reputable local nursery to come out and help you identify your plants and maybe even have a plan drawn up for you, of your current plantings. This will help you with your "inventory" and further be able to research proper care of your lovelies. When looking for said individual, during your initial phonecalls, ask if it'd be possible for that individual to give you some advice on their proper care. There is a nursery here that would provide that kind of consultation for a fee of $85/hour, which given your extensive plantings, I would do that in a HEARTBEAT! My limited advice so far.... in the case of that peach.... eliminate those suckers.... they're stealing energy from the main plant. Same thing with whatever the shrub is at the corner of the house.... has the glossy foliage and is pruned to a tree form.... get rid of those suckers. Just in case you don't know what a sucker is, it's not a derogatory term (at least in this case), take a look at the link below.... Here is a link that might be useful: Tree suckers
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Thank you for the good advice. It has given me some new things to consider before I continue. As far as hybridizing goals, my initial goal is fairly simple - I just want to see if I can do it. My ultimate goal? Once I was sitting at a conference where every desk had an open laptop on it. I was getting bored, so I went over to ebay and typed in "Daylilies - completed auctions - highest priced first.:" WOW! I saw dayliles that made my jaw drop. One was large, frilly, shades of purple/magenta with a chartreuse center and may have had the word "Leprechaun" in the cultivar name. A few farther down, I saw a bright red one, with a yellow/cream center and it may have had the name "China" or "Chinese" in the cultivar name. That was a few years ago, so I may never run across those particular culitvars again, but it certainly made me want to learn more about them. Years ago, I bought a purple/lavendar (I don't know the proper color terms) daylily called "Chicago Queen," and since then, I've favored the red/pink/purples. This is strange, because what I am growing now are pastel yellows, darker yellows and apricots (not on same property as my new flower beds. I like the frilly stuff, the thick petals, the ruffled edges, the doubles, the bicolors, etc, and at this point in time are not interested in UFO, spider, pastels, small blooms - maybe later. I will be looking at the sites you suggested and doing some more reading. A few quick, and I hope not dumb, questions: 1. As a beginner can I jump right into buying tetraploid lilies, or should I buy diploid first, or should I learn by working with both? (no money I spend on plants is wasted, since can I buy/grow what I want, and then later, if I tire of it, I can move it to a commercial property where they are enjoyed by the public.) 2. Is there a reason I should be looking at award winners to start out with? 3. Being a zone 5, should I buy now and in autumn, or should I wait till spring? The new flower beds are protected by buidlings or the woods, so extreme temps shouldn't be a problem. Thanks again for your thoughtful advice. Off topic, but you want to see my big pumpkin? Here is a link that might be useful:
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Dare I hope that you are still active in these forums, Al? I will admit that I have skimmed many of the posts you have made and even with that have found a great deal of wonderful information that seems completely absent from the books, magazines, and websites from which I have previously gathered my information. I "got into" container gardening and houseplants only about a year ago. In one of your posts you mentioned how container plants could start at a 9 out of 10 in their health/vitality, and good repotting could keep them close to that for their entire (long) lifetimes. before finding your wise posts, I had already begun potting-up all my house plants that have been with me for about a year (previously left in their original containers). Now I regret that. Due to my regret, I wonder if, since it is only mid-spring, if I might be safe in repotting my just-potted-up plants, or if I should wait and try that next year? Some have been potted up in good soil...but their old soil was mainly left intact, some I believe I have potted up in soil that is too water-retentive, and those too had their original root-ball and soil left in-tact. (And this causes me to rethink my plans for topdressing the very large outdoor containers I have too...ought I to repot there as well?) I wonder if you could point me to a good visual resource for the root-pruning you describe. Normally I prefer to absorb my information via words, but I cannot picture what you describe as problematic roots.
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diggingthedirt
18 years ago
Welcome! I can definitely recommend some good books, as I'm sure many others here can - we all have our favorites.

Since you're starting with a blank slate, you might want to delve into design before looking at specific plants. I *highly* recommend Gordon Hayward for this - "Your House, Your Garden" is a good one - he talks about laying out areas for different activities, and for drawing people into the garden, not just making "garden beds."

If you start thinking about this stuff at the beginning, you won't end up like me, moving shrubs and trees halfway across the yard to change your layout after 15 years.

I also recommend (and I probably sound like a broken record to any of the regulars who might read this) that you get some graph paper and make a map of your whole yard. The blue-lined stuff, with 4 squares to the inch works best (IMHO). It'll give you something to do when you've too exhausted to move, from digging all day, but can't sleep because you're so excited about what you're going to plant tomorrow.

There is a TON of info on garden web, I'd peruse the shrubs and trees forums if you're thinking of any woody plants, and definitely scan the perennials forum. I think I lurked on GW forums for a good month before I started writing - I was just amazed at how much discussion was going on here.

I DO use lots of other sites on the web to get info on plants, usually starting with google. You'll get a feel for which ones to click on - some of the arboretum sites are the most useful.

There's a thread here, or maybe it's in the FAQ, on public gardens in New England - consider visiting *lots* of those to get ideas too.
tree_oracle
18 years ago
This may seem like an overwhelming task to you right now but it can be quite fun and will give you a great deal of satisfaction once it's done. I think one of the better ways to get some ideas is to drive around and look at the landscaping that other people have done especially around home styles similar to yours. There are a lot of factors that go into plant choices for landscaping such as:

- the type of soil that you have (sand, clay, or something in between)
- sun exposure (full sun, part sun or shade, or full shade)
- size of the area (keep in mind the mature size of the plant; some plants do not tolerate pruning)
- style of home (eg. an island of wildflowers would not look good next to a formal colonial like it would next to a cottage-style cape)
- contrast (my neighbor planted several yellow roses next to his yellow house; it looks terrible; red roses would look so much better because of contrast; green tends to be more neutral and looks good as foundation plants such as hollies, boxwoods, etc.)

Some advice that I would give is to make sure that whatever amount of lawn that you have is in good shape. It cost relatively little to add seed and fertilizer to your lawn. A lush green lawn looks great and adds the perfect backdrop for a lot of landscaping. Also, don't overdo it with certain types of plants. Trees or shrubs with blue, red, or yellow foliage are meant to be used in moderation. Put too many red-leaved plants in your yard and you might as well hang a "Welcome to Hell" sign on your house.

Post a picture of your house here and in the Landscape Design forum and I'm sure you can get quite a few suggestions to get you started.

Extreme beginner here...any good websites?

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sedum37

mmqchdygg

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