Need help making these flower beds pretty. Ideas appreciated?
3 years ago
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3 years ago
3 years agoRelated Discussions
I need flower bed design help! I failed miserably (pics)!
Comments (31)Aggie, the journey can indeed be frustrating and paved with failures. but each failure is a learning experience. What people with experience can do is help you identify the lesson, and maybe also help you to differentiate the possible from the impossible, but don't let anyone rob you of the journey or of giving it a try. At the risk of repeating myself, you are asking a lot of yourself to get both your foundation planting and your flower gardening out of one spot. If colour and seasonal variation are really important things for you, I really would suggest you consider adding a bed somewhere to give yourself more opportunity in better growing conditions - and that is tough to do nicely if you don't make a new bed out of the same stone. But maybe you can do that. The other thing that is a bit uphill for you is that you can only get so much uniqueness when your plantings are in the same PLACE as everyone else's. I suspect in your old neighbourhood, there was variety in WHERE in the yard people put their plants, as well as variety in what plants they had. If I drive through the neighbourhood, everyone's plants are probably at the foundation, and if only the details vary, the overall impression is still very similar. So your bed at the foundation is working against your desire to do something original on two counts. But it can be done... if you haven't already asked in the conifers forum, ask there for some suggestions for specialty conifers that would do well in these conditions. You do need evergreen plants - the bones, so to speak - and they can be broadleaf or needled evergreens. If you want a lot of variety in your flowering plants, you might enjoy having repeats of some interesting evergreens... I keep thinking of Chamaecyparis 'Wissel's Saguaro' but that might just be because I like it a lot. No idea if it works in your conditions. Even boxwoods would look good as consistent, repeated forms to offset the variety. If, on the other hand, you want consistency in the flowers (all purple petunias or peach roses), then go for variety in the conifers. Who knows, you might develop a talent for topiary :-) Some of my favourite yards are amazing topiary confections. I don't have the patience or the discipline for it though. Then you can do amazing things with quite ordinary plants. Pruning makes all the difference between green blobs and interesting shapes. Broadleaf evergreens will also offer some options for you; try asking for advice at a couple of nurseries - not big box stores. I don't know if the Ilex family would work or not, but if so, Ilex 'Mariesii' is a lovely plant - varies in form, can have some fun with it. Whitecap is right that people like me from outside your area may not be much use for specific plant recommendations, but we can help with form, and process. I've linked below to a site that explains the principles of landscape design in a way that I like. It doesn't all translate to the design of a single bed, but you can maybe play with some of the ideas. Karin L Here is a link that might be useful: Principles of landscape design...See MoreNeed help with paint color, landscaping etc. all ideas are appreciated
Comments (6)Do you like gardening/maintaining landscapes.... or is it a chore? If the former, and if it was my place Id leave the lower grassy portion near water as is for now EXCEPT take down the fence (what purpose is it serving) and I would want to come up with a jazzier /more colorful design for that blah border planting in front of the stone wall (to left of stairs in pic #2 (what are the shrubs that are in there now?). I would put in some sort of grouping of 3 of something taller / more vertical at the very left of this border (tall enough to balance out the weight of that hydrangea). If its to the side it wont block out that much view and besides you could go quite tall maybe even up to 15 ft without blocking any of the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd floor windows. (I assume the bottom level is a walk out basement?) I would bump out that border to be wider, with taller flowering shrubs in back and perennials in front); Front - is that literally the road in the pic or is it your driveway? The grass area is too small to read as a lawn or anything useful and tends to turn into a weed patch - id put in a bunch of low growing, easy to grow shrubs like spirea which can be use dmore as a ground cover (instead of the usual row or border.) I was going to say replacegrass with stone work or pavers with some sort of stone sculptural piece and/or windowboxes/planters as Nancy suggests but if that's the road and not your driveway I don't want to confuse the drivers by having paving right up to your house - there would need to be some sort of clear border between the paving of the road and your house!!! (for obvious reasons - all you need is one tired driver to wreak havoc)...See MoreNeed help with front yard shrub/flower bed idea
Comments (2)Azeleas are pretty easy to care for. They need partial shade and regular watering. If you just want green plants, Ligustrum and Viburnum are easy to grow....See MoreNeed ideas for large, sloping, backyard flower bed
Comments (9)Just because a website says a plant should do well in a given area doesn't mean that is necessarily will. All information must be taken with a grain of salt and then verified before one invests too much. I'm sure the original design intent is that the junipers grow together and be the "groundcover." Using mass shrubs as groundcover has the disadvantage that it's difficult to limit their height without mucho maintenance. What inevitably ends up happening is that they become too large and unwieldy, make somebody unhappy and then get ripped out and replaced. Adding another groundcover in between them would look weedy. Though I would do this if you intended to replace them with that other groundcover, and remove the juniper as the other groundcover took hold. Another disadvantage to the sea of junipers is that you really can't add trees (though it looks like some might be useful for screening) because of the shade they produce. Plants that demand full sun It would help on the weeds if you used Preen, a pre-emergent herbicide that attacks germinating seeds, and mulch heavily. Many people give up on Preen because it usually doesn't do a great job until after its second application. And also, because they don't adhere to the schedule, putting the second app. on way too late so that it becomes just another "first" application. I have found it to be effective and basically a life-saver. It can cost a fair amount to cover a large area, but in my opinion it still beats the total cost of hand weeding once the time and PITA factor is added up....See More- 3 years ago
- PRO3 years ago
I never like conifers planted that close to a house they need air and light from all sides to grow well. I need to know where you live. Do those windows actually provide light for the basement . How much time do you want to spend working in the garden ? I think if you have a huge area to water it might be worth the money to do underground sprinkler system .We did this sort of idea with soaker hoses for a large area in our tard I loe it we just let it run all the time the trees and plants are much happier than with overhead watering that really just wastes water . You could then hide most of the hose in the shrubbery and also it can all go a timer if you do not want it running all the time
eli1094ca thanked Patricia Colwell Consulting - 3 years ago
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PRO3 years agolast modified: 3 years agoThe blue perennials are Blue Fortune Agastache.
Here is the other bed:
eli1094ca thanked Dig Doug's Designs- 3 years ago
@Dig Doug's Designs what is the ground cover and also the plants that are on each side? In the first I like the height of the grass at the beginning of flower bed. Here is a picture of where I would put it. I’m going to move one spiral tree opposite of other to frame door. Hopefully it survives. I need to figure out how to finish that flower bed too!
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