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I have a small flower bed at the front entrance of my house. Its 4ft wide, 12ft long and has a "matching space" on the other side of the steps....but I havent started working on that bed yet.

So far, the only things I have planted are at the front edge of the bed (Blue Chips Campanula & Creme Brulee Coreopsis). Any suggestions on some "not-to-tall" flowers I could add to rest of the bed?

FRONT VIEW
[img]https://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q179/dtownjbrown/gardening/Gardening086.jpg[/img]

CORNER VIEW
[img]https://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q179/dtownjbrown/gardening/Gardening084.jpg[/img]

SIDE VIEW
[img]https://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q179/dtownjbrown/gardening/Gardening082.jpg[/img]

I'm particularly fond of Sweet Alyssum. It's basically a "ground cover" plant, and comes in 3 colors that I know of: white, yellow and purple. It's an annual here, but there is at least one perennial variety, I believe.

There are so many plants for you to choose from! Try anything you like, and if you decide it doesn't work for you, just replace it with something else. A garden is like a painting, never really quite "finished," always a "work in progress."

I like low growing sedum, also known as creeping sedum. I love sedum they are great for that dry, sunny area and they don't need a lot of soil.

Salvia nemorosa is another full sun great plant. It flowers in spikes and can attract butterflies.

I also like delpinium 'blue butterfly' here's a pic in link. I know what your thinking delphinium, tall and spikey but this one isn't as much like that and the flowers don't grow in spikes like that.

https://www.specialplants.net/thumbs/delphiniumbluebutterfly.jpg

Daylilies are great choices for space because they are beautiful and require little care, plus they aren't picky about location or soil, but need at least partial sun. They thrive on neglect.

As for foliage hostas are great and also require little care but these perennials are shade to partial shade.

Another great choice and one of my recent favorites is silver mound artemisia. This hardy foliage plant is drought tolerate and full sun, however it can get three feet tall max, but mine is so far staying short and growing wide. It's soft to the touch, I love it. This pic isn't too great mine's leaves aren't that shape, might not be same cultivator or something and mine isn't so bushy.

https://www.djroger.com/artemisia.jpg

Other of my favorites include:

asiatic lilies
foxglove (I like pam's choice, but thats a biennial I try to look for the perennials)
moss roses (annual here but reseeds)
bearded irises ($here these can be 8 dallors a rhizome$)
dutch irises (cheaper not as pretty)
russian sage (love this one)
coral bells
phlox
tulips
daffodils

Well I guess I will stop myself. I hope you enjoy your garden, is this the same garden you were designing in that other post?

Hi, it posted my first message 2 times so I just edited it out.

minnesota_girl wrote: is this the same garden you were designing in that other post?

Yes, its the same one. The "other" post was moving towards soil amendments so I thought I should start a more design-specific post. My original plan was to start with Coreopsis & Dianthus but decided to go with Coreopsis & Campanula, but only because the latter was on sale (LOL). I have Creme Brulee planted in the ground but I also bought Moonbeam and Heavens Gate, however after playing musical chairs with them I'm thinking they might be too big for my front area.....so I will probably have to plant them over in the "dry" spot on the side of the house.

Thanks for all the "not-too-tall" plant suggestions. Alot of the names sound familiar so I'm sure they must have caught my eye in the garden center somewhere. Ive become a little apprehensive about purchasing plants since I went sooo coreopsis crazy last week. I bought something like ten plants but only three of them "fit" in the small area I originally bought them for (thus the reason for my revised post).

So now, I'm going to think about placement first before I go out shopping again

Before you go shopping for plants, measure the area where you intend to place them. I even draw little diagrams of the beds sometimes. I take these with me to the nursery. The little tags that you see stuck in the plant pots have a lot of information on them about the requirements of the specific plant, such as the sun exposure, water, acidity/alkalinity/drainage of the soil ... and, the plant's height and width at maturity. Having this information will enable you to buy just the right number of plants for the area you're working on. The nursery staff should be able to clarify anything you're unsure about and answer any additional questions you have.

When I return home with my plants, I set the pots out in the area where they are to be planted. I just put them on the surface of the soil, and arrange and rearrange them until I'm pleased with the appearance. Then I remove them from the nursery pots and plant them in the ground.

Kisal wrote:I set the pots out in the area where they are to be planted. I just put them on the surface of the soil, and arrange and rearrange them until I'm pleased with the appearance. Then I remove them from the nursery pots and plant them in the ground.

I do that too....I call it musical chairs because I move them around so much. The problem with the coreopsis is that the tags gave me the impression that 18"-24" would be a nice fit for my small area, but once I got to moving the pots around, I realized that the Moonbeam was going to be too wide and the Heavens Gate was going to be too upright. I think my "real" problem is the evergreen shrubs in the back (they're only 3 feet high but they looks so massive. I had given some thought to picking plants that have a mounding habit to go with the shrubs and maybe throwing in a couple of single stem flowers here and there (like some lilies, tulips, coneflowers, etc). Ive been looking at some internet pics and I like minnesotagirl's phlox and sedum suggestions....I also saw some "new england" asters that I really liked.

LOL dtownjbrown6262, after chatting to you I went to the store for groceries but then the garden center was on the way (sort of ) and I bought coreopsis, sedum, lilies (I have a weakness for lilies and there was some pretty ones and plus there were more than one in a couple of the pots), delphinium, and foxglove. Thanks for giving me an excuse to buy some plants.

Kisal, I do that too!! but I am running out of room for some reason , I don't know how it happened but I ran out of room so I made my garden bigger, shortly after the rest of the family complained that I have enough plants, which I do I suppose.

Hi,
When designing beds, I make sure to include some type of foliage plant if at all possible because, let's face it, flowers are fleeting. It's good to have something with two, three or even four season interest. My top go-to plants for this are Heucheras and ornamental grasses. Both are about as low maintenance as you can get, If you were interested in grasses, you would probably need to look for dwarf varieties or blue fescue, considering that the bed is only four feet wide. There are also some very nice variegated Iris which would serve the same purpose as a grass in terms of form. I think that Heucheras would be a really good choice for your bed. They are mounding like you were thinking about and many can take sun. They are all the rage these days and are being introduced in more and more colors. The villosa species seem to be especially sturdy. Along the same lines there are also Heucherellas and Tiarellas.
Hope my two cents helps.

You can never have too many flowers! Especially if you still have lawn.

I think I'll be adding flowers for years because we got rid of all our lawn and I'm finding "spots" that just don't have enough interest.

If I had my way there would be a pond in the middle of the front lawn with water lilies and a bed so huge there would be no need for a lawn mower but the rest of the family thinks I have a "gardening problem" what's the problem I like flowers and not mowing the lawn?

Just thought I'd report back on my progress. I finally got some plants into the ground (but only on one side). I planted Creme Brulee Coreopsis, Snow Lady Shasta Daisy, Peachie's Pick Stokesia, Happy Returns Daylily, Hidcote Blue Lavender and some annuals (as fillers). Here's a pic.........

[img]https://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q179/dtownjbrown/gardening/Left-1401pm-ZOOM.jpg[/img]

Looks great, I have a happy returns too. How about rudbeckia (black eyed susan), and purple coneflower. Maybe some russian sage, salvia, asiatic lilies, oriential lilies. Some bulbs tulips, daffodils, or hyacinths.

Petunias and Impatients would cover in well there.

They come in great colors.