Need suggestions for garden

Discussion in 'Garden Design and Plant Suggestions' started by 829, Oct 24, 2007.

  1. 829

    829 Active Member

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    I need suggestions for a full sun garden. I would like to have year round color. I currently have tulips and daffodils, but they do not last long enough. The shape is oval @ about 9'x8'

    I live in Western Arkansas zone 7a with heavy clay soil.

    Any suggestions would be nice,

    Thank you.
     
  2. 829

    829 Active Member

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    I have added about 10 6" mums, but it is still pretty bare.
     
  3. alex66

    alex66 Rising Contributor Maple Society 10 Years

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    but you prefere flower, trees or bush?for your soil Aster,Nerium oleander,ROSE(good result)Acer Platanoides,Miscantus ,Bamboo;reply with your preference!alex
     
  4. 829

    829 Active Member

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    Thank you Alex66,

    I would prefer flowers. Those that will bloom throughout most of the year.


    I have been doing a lot of reading about my clay soil and it seems as though doing a raised garden would be best. However, I bought extra mulch to till into the soil to help with drainage, will this actually help or should I just go raised?
     
  5. alex66

    alex66 Rising Contributor Maple Society 10 Years

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    a little sand of river is another good help ,where is the temperature min / max in your zone ?Rose ! some species are re-floring ,Salvia ,Daisy
     
  6. 829

    829 Active Member

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    We put down river sand 2 years ago and it turned to concrete.

    Min - Max Temps are about 20F - 110F
     
  7. alex66

    alex66 Rising Contributor Maple Society 10 Years

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    ok is zone 9 like me ,Viburno Opalus,Veronica,Buddleja Davidii,Perlagonium,Dalia,Acanthus,Agapantus,Allium,Aquilegia,Anemone,Sedum,Canna indaca,Cyclamen,Dafne,Osmnthus fragans,Paeonia,Plumbago,Ricinus impala,Rosmarinus
    alex
     
  8. Karalyn

    Karalyn Active Member

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    Butterfly Blue and Pink Mist scabiosa, Yarrow, Larkspur, Coreospis, Cone flower, hardy Geranium, Snow in Summer ground cover, Ice Plant, Dianthus, Elijah Blue grass, Impatients, clematis,
     
  9. 829

    829 Active Member

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    Thank you both.

    I have decided to raise the garden 12" - 18".

    Karalyn, I went to a local botanical garden (about 70 miles away,) that just opened to get some ideas and I saw the cone flower. There seem to be many different types.
     
  10. KarinL

    KarinL Well-Known Member 10 Years

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    I hope you have a nursery/garden centre closer by than 70 miles! A nursery is often a great place to start when you aren't sure what you want. They have the benefit of assuring you that you are looking only at plants that are actually available for you. It is alll very well to get the name of a great plant, but if it is not readily available the name will not help you unless you start mail ordering. In a nursery, the plant tags are often an excellent source of info, as to whether the plant prefers sun or shade, what soil type it likes, and so on.

    I think you need to decide what kind of gardening you want to do - whether you want annuals or perennials - and what you want in the way of structural elements and overall form, as well as off-season interest (if you have an offseason??). On a recent discussion on the GardenWeb Landscape Design forum, a thread has just been ongoing about the role of flowers in garden design, where one participant in particular pointed out that the garden design process should not begin with flowers even though they may be its ultimate star and primary purpose. Here is a link to the thread, in case you are interested in exploring the design process further:
    http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/design/msg1010091924077.html?28

    In that forum you would also find some good threads discussing raised beds on clay soils.
     
  11. Karalyn

    Karalyn Active Member

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    829 They are coming out with many new cone flowers these days that are quite fun! with your climate you could even order seeds from Thompson/ Morgan or Burpee etc. and get some of the new flower seeds out there. They should come up very quickly inyour climate.

    You could add some perlite and wood chips or bark to your soil and have the sand be more coarse, not the fine sand.

    When I changed my vegetable garden that was 40x 80 ft long, to a perennial flower garden, I did study plant and the longest blooming ones, and I got that info from Sunset and Better Homes and Gardens. You could go on their website and see what is they advise. This was before I had the internet. I did plant three cherry trees in these garden plot, rose bushes, irises, daylilies, hardy geranium, poppies, asters, strawberries, babies breath, gaura, daffodils, tulips, thyme, daises, two different kinds that bloom after the other one is dying off. One self seeds and the other is divided by division, I planted several clematis as that is my passion to climb through my roses or grow on top of a trellis or obelisk or arbor, also planted weeping norway (spruce)?, now I'm adding more trees and conifers. But I have more space and it gets full sun. Hot sun in the summer. I chose many of these plants for drought tolerance and long blooming. It has taken a few years and am changing some plants to put new and different ones in keep amending the soil as when i started out I wasn't knowledgable and didn't have much extra money for doing everything I wanted right away.

    Building fish ponds was my main focus.
     
  12. 1950Greg

    1950Greg Active Member

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    I like to go to nurseries through out the year and see what blooming and see whats new. This is a good way to slowly build up a collection of plants that appeal to you and find ones that are in bloom in your area at that time. Also talk nursery staff and customers to learn more. Gardens are ever changing with new plants coming in every year.
     
  13. handyman

    handyman Member

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    See www.mygardenplans.com for plant ideas.

    I don't have any recommendations for you specifically, but I've created a website where people share garden plans online. It's kind of like YouTube, but for gardeners.
     
    Last edited: Nov 24, 2007
  14. Karalyn

    Karalyn Active Member

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    Handyman,
    I went to your site and was very pleased to see the photos everyone so far has posted. I've always wanted to go to Thanksgiving Point, but seem to go at the wrong time or just don't know enough about it. I did get a brochure when I was in SLC in October. And my SIL lives really close to Thanksgiving Point.

    When is the best time to visit this place?

    I really like the bridge that is on the home page and MDVaden's photos as well. It is getting late here in Boise, 3:00AM, I couldn't sleep and decided to check out my favorite websites.
     
  15. 829

    829 Active Member

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    1 year later.

    All the pictures have been resized to 800x600.

    After getting back from vacation, I noticed someone, most likely kids had screwed around in my garden and knocked over my bench and killed a few things, but I think those will come back next year.

    I tried to plan for year round blooming.

    I did loose my purple heart in January of this year. It was constructed of pansies. Given that the mums seem to have been on steroids lately, it is probably good it died off. Each of those mums started out as 6" pots a year ago and now they are breaking under their weight.

    I am updating this so those who offered guidance, can see how it came along.

    I cannot seem to find the pictures of the double delight tea rose blooms or the tulips or the day and oriental lilies, but I can add later if requested. Everyone has seen daffodils, so I left them out.

    What I started with comes first.

    The picture showing the entrance has clippings of the ground cover I cut back this morning.
     

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    Last edited: Oct 4, 2008
  16. alex66

    alex66 Rising Contributor Maple Society 10 Years

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    ooohhh!!a very ,very nice ,wonderful pink stone...
     
  17. 829

    829 Active Member

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    Thank you.
     
  18. Karalyn

    Karalyn Active Member

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    Wow, you did a super job! Very pretty indeed!
     
  19. 829

    829 Active Member

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    Thank you.
     
  20. togata57

    togata57 Generous Contributor 10 Years

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    Looks great! What a beautiful dahlia. You may not be a botanist, but you obviously know a few things about plants! I like your mammoth mums, too. Well done!
     
  21. 829

    829 Active Member

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    Thank you.

    I took a lot of the information provided here and a lot of what my wife wanted to build this. I think the reason the mums went from 6" pots to what they are now in only a year is because I used strictly compost to build up the area. It only cost me $30 for 3 truckloads.
     

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