ok my garden needs some MAJOR help. Ive tried planting flowers and theyve all died. except what was put in when we bough the house. Im going to attach pictures and yall tell me what you think.... oh and i know the weeds need to go lol. Its a shame it not a weed garden- id be doing ok then



My house is SO unwelcoming from the outside lol!!


HAHAH! I had to edit it maybe I should have taken the snow men clings down before taking a picture lol!

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Stephanie

What direction is the front of your home facing? How much sunlight does it get? What sort of soil do you have? I have a lot of really bad soil and I find that perennials do OK but annuals do not. You have to make sure you are putting shade plants in the shade, sun flowers where they get sun, etc.

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No suggestions, but I envy your green grass. The snow is almost gone here at home, but the grass is an awesome shade of dead.

Well one suggestion - finding out what the bushy things are and seeing if they can be hacked at with pruners or something to "shape" them so the long bit growing out the tops don't look so...long?

:D

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Well, just seeing grass looks good to me right now!!! We are still covered in snow

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~Happiness is a large family~

Have you consider roses they would look so pretty at the front! You can also grow them in pretty pots and move them as you want.

I the left side of the house (as you are facing it) I would put a arch trellis and put roses or ivy growing up it with a bench underneath.

I would also fill in with the white decorative rocks.

I do all of the above in my garden, and I have no complaints and it is all pretty low maitance.

The bushes you have are pretty, but they always need shaping/trimming to maitain a neat appearance.

Do you want perennials or annuals? Are you looking for tall plants or short ones? Or a few tall ones in between the shrub & the sidewalk, with lower plants in the front?

Perennials that work well in my lousy soil, tall: Peony, columbine, black eyed susans (those will grow anywhere I think), hollyhocks (very tall), veronica (spreads like mad but easy to grow), hostas, flocks, bellflowers are medium height.

Annuals that work well in my lousy soil - very limited. I usually have to use pots, but I've had the best luck with snapdragons (which you can get tall or short), begonias, allysum, and moss roses if the soil is very dry.

Can't grow if my life depended on it: roses. My sister has probably 40 rose bushes with rose gardens and trellises dripping w/ roses. They won't grow for me at all.

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Underneath the pine needles, there is really nice white rock. new too. lol cant tell though.
it gets ALOT of sun. I have the weed control fabric stuff down, but as you see it doesnt help.
I wanted some sort of pretty VERY low maintenece flowers.
The bushes are actually long because our lawn care people told us not to cut them needless to say we dont have them anymore normally those are clipped I electric clippers that I looooove. we have no trees in our yard so i feel like it looks so bare.
I should post my back yard lol... yall would have fun with that.

and actually my grass was WAY greener but weve had alot of cooler weather lately. the grass is my dh's pride and joy- cant tell by looking at it though lol!

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Stephanie

I have no idea what i want lol. but I know the soil has to be bad it has large chunks on concrete from the builder. What kind of flowers take extreme heat? her in florida it gets SO hot. and is this the time of year to plant?

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Stephanie

Moss roses will grow in rock. They come up between my paver stones all the time. There are many varieties of moss roses - they require little water. Basically ask for "succulents" at the flower store. You need to remove as much of that concrete as you can, and you can add some topsoil into the dirt to improve it a bit. Or peat moss, bagged manure...

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I'd trim the bushes a bit and start improving the soil. You can buy bags of compost just about anywhere. Look around at your neighbors yards and see different types of plants that you like growing in their yards. Florida is so different from Idaho, I can only imagine what would work in your climate. A lot of times, when you get talking to your neighbors, they can give you transplants from theirs. Saves a lot of money!

Oh yeah! Don't forget to start dumping your coffee grounds / tea grounds in your dirt. Worms love coffee grounds. I assume and hope they feel the same way about tea!