Gardening and Horticulture - Help on garden design

Hello everyone, can you help me on some zone 5 gardening questions?

1. I have an area for gardening, but it will be in the shadow of the tree most of the time. Can you recommend some flowers that won't require much sun shine?
2. I also plan to plant some flowers (not too tall) along the walk way which has good sun exposure. Can you recommend any flower for this?

Thank you!
Tina

For your shade area believe it or not you have a good number of perenial options....such as: bleeding hearts, astilbes, variety of ferns, variety of hostas, columbine (a great flowering perennial), camellias etc. Additionally, to spruce the area up and add color in the summer mix in begonias and or impatients.

For your sunny area your options are huge. The question is are you looking for low bush type plants as a permanant solution in which you will accent with annuals? Or are you looking for a perenial garden only? Either way I happen to love the wave petunias for color. They are very harty annuals and can take as much sun as you can give them. Add a variety of color.

Thanks for your reply.
I have a couple of more newbie questions:

For the flowers you mentioned, normally where can I get them, from grocery store, home depot or any special store?

My existing garden has something planted by previous owner. These plants come out every year. Since there is no label in it, I have to wait them to come out in order to plant new things. Will I miss the planting season?

Thanks,
Tina

Tina,

Home Depot will have most of these plants. A good nursery (depending on where you live) will also have them, but shop early-mid April in order to get your pick of the lot.

You have plenty of time to plant around the existing plants. The existing plants should start sprouting by early to mid April, I would think. Even if you go into May you'll be fine as long as you keep your new plants well watered.

If you really enjoy gardening you should invest in a good gardening book. I searched for years and have a library now, but one of my favorites is "Taylor's Master Guide to Gardening". It cost about $50 when I bought it, but it was worth it.

Good luck and let me know if you have any other questions.

Dawn

Hi Tina,

I hate to jump in here since Dawn has done an excellent job in helping you out, but lately K-Mart has been one of my big sources of plants. They carry Martha Stewart's line. I know, some people scoff at her, but hey, she offers nice plants.

So check out K-Mart. They'll be offering plants that are hardy for your area. If you watch the ads, her plants will be half price later in the summer. Even if they look sick, (well, not too sick, not dead looking) buy them. What you are interested in is the roots. The winter will kill the top growth and next spring you will start out with a healthy, new plant.

I bought a pine tree from an end of the year sale that I didn't think would survive. It has turned out to be a very beautiful tree.

Gami

Down and Gami, thank you for your advice. That helps a lot.

As for the book Down recommended, I searched on Amazon and found three books with the same title under different authors. What is the author for your recommended book?

As a beginner, I think I need a book/books that contain basic techniques/processes on planting and maintaining plants with idea of garden designing, and photographed list of common plants grown in New England. Any recommendation?

Thanks,
Tina

Hi Tina,

I checked out Amazon.com, they list the book, I think, but they don't show it. I went to www.barnesandnoble.com and searched "Taylor's Master Guide to Gardening". #3 is the one I am talking about. It has a pink rose on the bottom right corner of the book.

The book is great in that the first half covers creating gardens and a gallery of plants (with great pictures of established plants and a huge variety..annuals, perennials, shrubs, trees, vines, ferns, herbs etc). The next section is an Encyclopedia of plants which gives a discription of each plant, what it likes and doesn't like and how to grow them. The final section is Growing Healthy Plants, which covers soil, planting, ongoing care, lawns etc.

It is a hard cover large book packed with 611 pages of great information. I have found it to be a wonderful reference source.

As for the K-Mart connection with plants, I have never had much success with K-Mart - but if you see something you like try it. Home Depot has a return policy that others can't match. If your plant/tree dies within a year of purchase just bring it back and they will replace it.

Tina, good luck. Let me know if I can help you out with anything else.

Dawn