What should I plant here?

Garden mavens,

One spot of my otherwise lovely inherited garden is rather scruffy. It's in the front, and has plenty of sun, but except for a few bulbs/perennials it is rather bare. What would you recommend planting here?


How about poppies? Even though short flowering they are wonderful and I've found them to be fairly hardy in our garden.


Forgot to add image...


How big is the space? What is planted nearby? Is the soil heavy or light, and does it retain water or dry out? Do you like roses? They do need a fair amount of care, but you'd have flowers all summer and into the fall. St. John's wort fills in nicely and is a reliable perennial. Daylilies? Easy to grow, lots of flowers, lots of them around, though. Geraniums look nice in a mass, and if you deadhead them, you'll have a good number of flowes for quite a while. A butterfly bush? Can get leggy if you don't keep after it, but the bees and butterflies love it. I'm sure you'll get lots of suggestions from the other gardeners around MOL.


Would a small specimen tree be good there? Our neighbor in West Orange had a similar spot that "needed something," and we happened to have a couple of small Japanese maples we had grown from seed on our deck. We couldn't take them with us, so we gave them to friends. That neighbor still has that small red maple at the corner of her yard where she turns into the driveway, and it's beautiful.

Or an evergreen shrub would be nice, so you would have something green year-round.


Just added the visual (sideways for some reason). It's a small semicircle of space right by the path. Not sure we would want something too high...or with thorns. There were a few tulips and daffodils but now it's just scruffy.


Hmmmm....in that space I'd probably go with geraniums or daylilies. Can see why you'd want to go fairly low in height there. Do you like basil or lavender? I've seen people plant both by their front walks. Both like full sun (and with the basil, you can eat it!)


It would be a terrific spot for an herb garden, actually. But what would stop me from doing that is the fact that it would be bare dirt in the winter. I think I might fill it with low evergreens or a ground cover of some kind that won't die back in winter.


If it gets good sun, I'd add a couple of compact perennials, a thread leaf coreopsis (they come in different colors and varieties), I have a couple of "moonglow" that are pale yellow,and they produce loads of tiny blossoms. I might add some contrast to the coreopsis with something blue, like Salvia or lavender. All of those will take a good haircut, and comeback more vigorously, and are very low maintenance. This is a portion of my front garden. The little clump in the foreground is coreopsis---the hydrangea, Stella D'Oro day lilies, and the tall blue flowers are blue balloon flowers. Good luck and have fun!


I had to rotate this, so I could get a better view.


Tidal wave petunias and sweet potato vine. They will trail nicely over the wall.



calliope said:
I had to rotate this, so I could get a better view.

Thanks. You beat me to it! oh oh



cody said:
Do you like basil or lavender? I've seen people plant both by their front walks. Both like full sun (and with the basil, you can eat it!)

And rosemary, too, if you can grow it. One of our neighbours knocks on our door every so often, asking for a couple of sprigs to add to his lamb roast. It's a nice way of meeting the neighbours.


We had rosemary in our back yard in West Orange, and the neighbor used to come over to pick some sprigs for her cooking. oh oh

I love it and used to plant it every year, but it didn't do very well in our climate. Wouldn't winter over at all.


If you want a nice scent in the air, try rosemary, lavender, and lemon thyme. That's what we had in our herb garden. You can even get a creeping thyme so it will become a ground cover and trail over the wall a bit.


Peggy, I just bought all of those! Also a bit of trailing peppermint and a coreopsis. Going to plant today. Thank you everyone!


Planted! Silver thyme, Thai basil, lavender, Rosemary, Peppermint and a coreopsis. Thank you all!


That will fill out nicely, deborahg! It looks better, already! Soon, it will look wonderful!


What will be there in the winter


If last year is any indication : SNOW!


With an herb garden or perennials, your best bet is to clear out dead leaves, cut back as needed, mulch in the fall and just leave it dormant. A space that size won't be much of an issue to leave empty during the snow months.


Oh, and I meant to say, "Very pretty!!!" smile


I would put in some mums to carry interest thru Nov. herbs get a little weedy looking IMO . I also would plant lavender which stays interesting thru winter, sinc the bed is in the front.


Lavender is in the mix already. And I think mums would crowd things a bit at this point. Besides, it's always possible to see how you like the bed this year and plan some changes for next spring. Planting beds are always evolving, at least at my houses. oh oh


Yes, there is lavender, and thanks everyone for the input and ideas! My master gardener friend came by and said he thought this would work, so I will see how it goes. Meanwhile our veggie garden in the bakc is going great guns, so it's an exciting year all around!


As I have become less agile, I have really focused on container gardening, along with two tall wrought iron plant racks on our patio for a variety of flower pots. Great fun going to garden centers for a bit of this and that -- no intense planning and a riot of color.

What I started awhile ago as a temporary solution to a problem area has now become a permanent one. We have evergreens and flowering shrubs in the front of the house, but I always missed not having a few flowers in front as well, but dreaded the in the ground planting work.

I placed big metal baskets, lined with bark matting, on the ground. In autumn I have had arrangements of pumpkins and gourds. In winter , I stick evergreen branches and pine cones (adding some holiday trim in Dec.) into the baskets. Right now I have lobellias and dusty miller which should last until fall. Works for me


Sounds lovely! Here is our vegetable garden...thank to master gardener and friend, @kap!



That looks great, DeborahG! Don't forget to keep the new plants in the front watered while they settle in, and please favor us with some more photos once the plants are nicely established and filled out some. smile


It looks delicious!

I put three baskets out front -- gone are the days of begonia,or ageratum, or impatiens, etc border!



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