Hey guys. Tomorrow I'll be outside, expanding my vegetable garden, bringing it out about 10-15 ft. I'm going to prepare a nice flowering edge going around the garden fence. What are some nice perennial flowers that will bloom for a good part of summer, that can get the job done? It'd be best if they didn't get to big and bushy. No vining plants like morning glories, we have those already. Just want a nice splash of color around the veggies. This area gets full sun.
Next, I'm going to plant some flowers around our burning bushes and around the dwarf spruce trees and rose of sharons. Again, something that's not bushy. This area is shaded most of the day, as it is on the north-facing side of our house, and a large mimosa tree is on this side too. It does get evening sun though.
I hope you guys can give me some suggestions.
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rainbowgardener
- Super Green Thumb
- Posts: 25279
- Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:04 pm
- Location: TN/GA 7b
Around a veggie garden, I like to grow flowers that are attractive to bees, butterflies, and beneficial insects like lacewings, ladybugs, etc.
In the really short range that might include creeping phlox, lyre leaf sage (actually a mint, not a salvia), basket of gold, sweet alyssum, parsley, thyme, comfrey.
If you didn't mind planting some meadow wildflowers in the 2-3 foot range: yarrow, anise hyssop, coneflower, bee balm, tansy, lavender, milkweed, dill, fennel, Queen Anne's lace, penstemon.
All of these are for the full sun area. Here's a nice little article on plants to attract beneficial insects:
https://www.farmerfred.com/plants_that_attract_benefi.html
In the really short range that might include creeping phlox, lyre leaf sage (actually a mint, not a salvia), basket of gold, sweet alyssum, parsley, thyme, comfrey.
If you didn't mind planting some meadow wildflowers in the 2-3 foot range: yarrow, anise hyssop, coneflower, bee balm, tansy, lavender, milkweed, dill, fennel, Queen Anne's lace, penstemon.
All of these are for the full sun area. Here's a nice little article on plants to attract beneficial insects:
https://www.farmerfred.com/plants_that_attract_benefi.html
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rainbowgardener
- Super Green Thumb
- Posts: 25279
- Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:04 pm
- Location: TN/GA 7b
OK for the shady area, that might be a good place for some ferns, if you can keep it watered enough. Sometimes the shade around trees and shrubs is pretty dry, because the tree/shrub roots soak up all the moisture.
Other thoughts - heucheras (coral bells) are shade plants that mostly have fairly inconspicuous flower spikes, but are grown for their gorgeous foliage that comes in a variety of wonderful color combinations.
https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=heuchera+images&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
Wild ginger is a nice native ground cover, that makes a very smooth carpet of heart shaped green leaves. The flowers are pretty little brown bells, but they are grown under the leaves, so you never see them unless you go looking.
Partridge berry (Mitchella) is an evergreen ground cover with pretty, fragrant flowers followed by berries that birds like. But it needs acid soil, such as the areas where azaleas/ rhodendrons thrive. If you have that, it will be very easy care (if not, forget it).
Other thoughts - heucheras (coral bells) are shade plants that mostly have fairly inconspicuous flower spikes, but are grown for their gorgeous foliage that comes in a variety of wonderful color combinations.
https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=heuchera+images&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
Wild ginger is a nice native ground cover, that makes a very smooth carpet of heart shaped green leaves. The flowers are pretty little brown bells, but they are grown under the leaves, so you never see them unless you go looking.
Partridge berry (Mitchella) is an evergreen ground cover with pretty, fragrant flowers followed by berries that birds like. But it needs acid soil, such as the areas where azaleas/ rhodendrons thrive. If you have that, it will be very easy care (if not, forget it).
rainbowgardener wrote:Around a veggie garden, I like to grow flowers that are attractive to bees, butterflies, and beneficial insects like lacewings, ladybugs, etc.
In the really short range that might include creeping phlox, lyre leaf sage (actually a mint, not a salvia), basket of gold, sweet alyssum, parsley, thyme, comfrey.
If you didn't mind planting some meadow wildflowers in the 2-3 foot range: yarrow, anise hyssop, coneflower, bee balm, tansy, lavender, milkweed, dill, fennel, Queen Anne's lace, penstemon.
All of these are for the full sun area. Here's a nice little article on plants to attract beneficial insects:
https://www.farmerfred.com/plants_that_attract_benefi.html
Thank you! I don't have a problem with that height range for the wild flowers. I have looked them up (all of them) and the phlox, basket of gold and some of the wildflowers I really like. They'd be great. I like the idea of attracting beneficial critters. Irainbowgardener wrote:OK for the shady area, that might be a good place for some ferns, if you can keep it watered enough. Sometimes the shade around trees and shrubs is pretty dry, because the tree/shrub roots soak up all the moisture.
Other thoughts - heucheras (coral bells) are shade plants that mostly have fairly inconspicuous flower spikes, but are grown for their gorgeous foliage that comes in a variety of wonderful color combinations.
https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=heuchera+images&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
Wild ginger is a nice native ground cover, that makes a very smooth carpet of heart shaped green leaves. The flowers are pretty little brown bells, but they are grown under the leaves, so you never see them unless you go looking.
Partridge berry (Mitchella) is an evergreen ground cover with pretty, fragrant flowers followed by berries that birds like. But it needs acid soil, such as the areas where azaleas/ rhodendrons thrive. If you have that, it will be very easy care (if not, forget it).
I just came in from working in the garden. I was out for 3 hours, and I cleaned up things a bit, move the fence to the property dividing privacy fence and burried it some (hopefully deter groundhogs, which we have had problems with for years). Have the expanded space marked out, and started digging it.
This new area is all grass, so I'm just using the pitchfork to take it up in small mats and flipping them over in their apropriate hole, dirt and roots up. I'll let that sit all winter and hopefully the grass will die off and begin to decompose so we can till it in spring.
For the shade plants, I like ferns. I don't think my soil is acidic, because we tried azaleas once and they didn't grow well, So the partidge berry's out :/.