Kate asked: My fiance and I recently moved into our first home. Our grass has finally begun to come up and we were wondering about some ideas on what to plant. We both have full time jobs and not alot of time to work in the garden. Any suggestions? (I really like my yard to be colorful). And if you do have suggestions, could you please give me a step-by-step run-down of how to plant and take care of them?
You can find great sites online for gardening. They give you step by step instructions. Some website even have tools that you can up load and plan you garden. Type in gardening in search bar you will be amazed at what you find.
I just brought a butterfly mat. It has about 500 seeds in it and it comes complete all you need to do is put it 3/4″ in soil(they recommend one with fertilizer already in it) saturate the mat with water, put an 8th of an inch of dirt over it cover it completely and wait for it to grow. It says the flowers will grow in about 2 weeks but no weeding for 3to4 weeks. The flowers will be all different types and very colorful (butterfly’s like these flowers so they will attract them) Some of the flower are Zinnia eklegans, Tagetes erecta, cornflowers, cosmos bipinnatus, and plains coreopis. They all are colorful and either annuals, biennial or perennials. I just planted mine today.
It really depends if your yard is more shaded or bright, what your climate is, what type of soil you have…there are a lot of variables. I’d suggest looking online, or asking someone at a local gardening shop what they’d recommend, they are usually very knowledgable and helpful.
A good idea is to stick ‘weed control fabric’ (available from most DIY Garden Centres) and cover with rather bark ( can get in a few colours) or pebbles over and then you heve the choice of putting the plants through the weed control fabric by pushing back the bark/pebbles and cutting a large X in the fabric then planting the plants into that or puttiong in containers. For greatr ideas, visit.
canna’s are great…require very little work once in the ground but only cover with up to 1 inch of soil..just occasion water and fertilizer and prefer full sun…coneflowers are low maintainence and drought tolerant once established..bury as deep as the plant was in the container
the canna’s will grow bigger and then you can divide the tuber and plant in other areas or leave them be for a thicker bed but it is recommended to divide them every 2 or so yrs to prevent overcrowding
coneflowers need division every 2-3 yrs and the song birds love the seed heads on these..i love to watch the yellow finch hang upside down eating the seeds off of coneflowers
bachelor buttons will reseed themselves every year and just require watering when it is dry 1 or 2 times a week
there are several types of sedum also but do research on sedum before buying any because some types are almost impossible to get rid of once they are established…one piece pulled off the plant and tossed to the side can take root elsewhere and try to take over another spot
daylilies need very little care and come in a wide variety or colors..just need watering occasionally during dry spells\
iris are good but you cannot let grass grow up around them..recommended planting them in other beds with other flower to prevent diseases and harmful bugs..also you want to leave part of the rhizome uncovered to get it to bloom the next year..an iris rhizome that is completely covered can root or just wont bloom the next yr but on occasion they will bloom..you will also have plenty of blooms not covering them completely and iris are definitely drought tolerant…they can even live if thrown on top of the ground
there are many types of bulbs, bushes and plants that you can buy that bloom different times of the year for continuous color and many are low maintenance once established