Can I plant now? And, if I can...what should I plant?

Hi All,

I have never had a garden or planted anything in my life...but this week I cleared out our "garden" so all that is left is dirt. The "garden" was probably once beautiful, but whatever remained from the previous owner was now overgrown by weeds from my years of neglect. Our front garden area gets partial sun to full sun under two large bushes that are still there, but I don't know what they are. My backyard is mostly in the shade all day long. The dirt looks packed in and really dry.

Now, that there is NOTHING in our garden beds can I plant anything now? Or do I have to wait until a particular time of the year, it looks pretty barren. Do you guys have any suggestions of LOW MAINTENANCE flowers and plants for my sunny front yard and shady backyard? I looked into perennials in hopes that they will stay or come back each year...but I'm worried because I will not maintain whatever we put back there.

Please help,

lacking a green thumb,

Christina

Can you post a photo?

I've posted some photos.

Two photos of the front, each side of the house has a big bush with lots of space underneath and in front. It receives partial sun during the day.

Two photos of the back garden beds, they are in mostly shade all day.

Thanks for ANY advice

More photos

Congratulations on all that work. I have cleared overgrown ground, and it can be back-breaking. After that, I'm sure you're eager to start gardening, but this is a difficult time to establish new plantings. If you do plant now (and we can talk about what later), the ground is dry and it will be hard to dig proper-size holes. You'll also have to commit to constant watering. New plants will probably need twice-daily soaks, longer and deeper than you can ever believe. (Sometimes I give a new plant what I think is a good drenching, then open up a crevice of soil only to find it desert-dry just a few inches down.) If you suspect you're not the gardening type, and won't want to do that kind of maintenance of your new plantings, you are better off waiting for cooler weather. You might also have trouble finding a good selection of plants at this time. We can talk next about low-maintenance shrubs and perennials for your new garden!

Great advice ..cooler temps allow better growth as well as more choice of plants at nurseries .

Have fun?.use the many plant books and catalogues available.Ever -blooming Flower Garden by Schneller is very useful

The hard part is done.

Wait until Sept and then visit the Great Swamp Greenhouses and take these images. They are beyond helpful as to what to plant where. You have to take in consideration the foundation - which may be leaching alkaline - so plants near there should either like it or tolerate it.

That being said - most of the area has heavy clay that runs more acidic.

In other words - get a soil test from Rutgers - easy to do, small fee, peace of mind you're planting what does well in the spaces.

You may also want to rent a rototiller to break up the soil - some of it is pretty compacted.

Do you get deer by you?

https://njaes.rutgers.edu/soiltestinglab/pdfs/ph-Lime-req.pdf

If you hadn't posted photos, I would have thought that it was someone posting on my behalf. Same problems of dry compacted dirt, sunny in front - shady in back, and desiring low or no maintenance. I tried to till the dirt and worked on a border, but we fizzled out half way through the project. I'm letting the weeds take over, just to hide our efforts. Will tackle it again in September.

Yes what was said above... take the next few weeks to get your soil ready. You can dig and turnover the beds-- get your soil tested, and then enrich your soil with some compost.

A shade tolerant plant (that also does ok in partial sun ) that is extremely low maintenance is hosta-- there are alot of different varieties to create interest. The good news is you can not kill them!!!! Of course the deer think they are quite tasty so if you have deer in your area that is a consideration.

Think in stages..

You can rent a small tiller from most Home Depot or Lowe's stores to loosen up the dirt in those beds. I would add a few bags of nice, loose potting soil and till it into the existing dirt, but I would wait till September to plant anything.

Fall is the perfect time to plant a LOT of bulbs, from daffodils and crocuses to ferns and hostas. Ferns, hostas, coral bells, bleeding hearts and astilbes were my favorite plants for the shade. In the sun, you would have a lot of fun with perennials like echinacea, salvia, cardinal flower and bee balm, if you want to attract butterflies and hummingbirds. Easier still for the sun bed would be day lilies, which grown in clumps and expand nicely over a few seasons.

If you consult a nursery, you will get a lot of good advice for what you can actually put in the ground in September, but you can learn a lot just by noticing what they are selling at that time. You can put a lot of things in the ground in September, then fill in next May with more of the flowers that love sun.

check your pms

Thank you thank you for all the responses! Sadly, it sounds as though EVERYONE says I should wait to plant anything until September...but hey I think the dirt looks better than the weeds!!! To do list:

1. Buy a ph Test: Is this the kind of test I should buy: Luster Leaf RapiTest pH Soil Tester, its on Amazon for $6 . http://www.amazon.com/Luster-Leaf-1612-Rapitest-Tester/dp/B0001LEPYA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1439251432&sr=8-1&keywords=soil+ph+test+kit

2. Till the soil. I'm going to rent a tiller from Home Depot this week and break up the soil and add potting soil.

New questions....

Can I put something on top like mulch to prevent weeds from regrowing until September? I have no idea what I'm talking about but thinking that might be the stuff that you cover dirt with.

THANKS GUYS!

(responded)

You can mulch to keep the weeds from growing back... I use a mulch that has Preen weed killer in it, so it inhibits the ability of the weed seeds to germinate. Of course, if you do use that, don't try to plant seeds, because they won't germinate either. Or, you could use weed barrier, a thin fabric that covers the area and keeps the weed seeds from getting sunlight and germinating. Similarly, you can simply cover the area with newspaper held down by rocks, but it's not very pretty.

PeggyC's suggestion about bulbs is a great one for what I would describe as delayed instant satisfaction! You plant the bulbs in the fall and in the spring, like a miracle, you get beautiful flowers without any new work! You will feel like a real gardener and gain confidence. Daffodils and crocus are winners in my book. They come up year after year (unlike tulip bulbs which generally are only beautiful for one year).

I continue to fill in my shady garden beds with hostas, bleeding hearts and astilbes. There are wonderful characteristics with hostas. They take little care--easy/peasy. They have flowers (we cut them off when they fade, many folks don't). They come in many colors and sizes so you can create a beautiful garden by either massing one type or color....or, by planting an arrangement with several varieties. Right now I'm in love with the ones that have some sort of bright yellow-green because they pop in the shade.

I have no advice on sun plants as I have no sun in my shady yard. Keep in mind that there can be lots of trial and error as you garden. What works for my yard might not work in yours. I've never been successful with ferns, for example, and had better success with astilbes in another house than I've had here. Good luck and have fun.

PeggyC said:

Fall is the perfect time to plant a LOT of bulbs, from daffodils and crocuses to ferns and hostas. Ferns, hostas, coral bells, bleeding hearts and astilbes were my favorite plants for the shade.

Ferns. Hah. We didn't have a lot of luck with ferns in our West Orange house, despite the proliferation of shade. I have no idea why. But in our first CT house, the ferns are trying quite hard to take over the world, starting with that yard. I have no idea what makes such a difference. Soil, maybe?

I also love hostas and the wide range of colors available. OTOH, deer seem to adore hostas, so quite often all we had were nubs. The beautiful thing about hostas, though, is they are next to impossible to kill, so even when the deer eat them all the way to the ground, they come back.

Please don't use weed killer. There's no need. Lay down mulch.

As for tilling and adding potting soil.

How can you add stuff if you dont know what's needed? Spend $25 and get the soil test from Rutgers. Call the Master Gardeners hotline. Adding potting soil will do nothing.

Find out what is exactly missing and add only that.

You have a point about the herbicides. I had not thought about it since we moved, but I am now because we have ponds nearby and a wetland on the property. I had taken to using the Preen mulch on planting beds because it really did seem to help keep the weeds down longer than plain mulch, but now I'm having to give that a lot more thought.

But I'm not sure what is wrong with tilling in potting or garden soil to loosen up the compacted, dry soil?

Mulch - deep enough, should keep the weeds down. Adding an herbicide to mix is counter productive if the plants haven't been selected. And it's bad for the environment as a whole.

Potting soil is perfected to be used in pots. I can't see it being a good choice if the soil condition is unknown. It's also a very expensive choice to use a soil modifier.

The ground probably needs - organic materials to lighten it up, sand, and topsoil. Plus whatever nutrients that are lacking. As for PH - I prefer to grow stuff that works with what's there then having to constantly adjust for plants that don't do well.

I have no idea what made me say potting soil in the first place. Usually we get garden soil. *sigh*

Not having a good day in the communications department.