My dad wants to start a garden; however, we do not have a large yard. i was wondering if anyone knew specific types of flowers or plants that grow well in small areas. Also, what plants/flowers look well together?
-Thanks Jess
Thousands of flowers can look good in small plantings. Which ones you choose depends on your climate, and how much time you want to invest in caring for the garden on a regular basis. Your best bet is a trip to the library to bring home a bunch of books. Among those books should be one which identifies plants & shrubs and describes the conditions and care they need. Take it with you to a garden store (not Home Depot, not Lowe's, not Wal Mart) so you can read about the plants you see right in front of you before bringing them home and finding they're not well suited to your needs.
Library Library Library
There are too many possibilities!! You should go to a "Real" garden center or nursery not a home depot or Lowe's and ask an expert there. You would just need to tell them what exposure or how much sun or shade you have, how big of an area are you talking, what type of soil. Is it sandy, clay. Also if there is sprinklers or you want more of a drought resistant design. They can show you some plants to get you started. Try not to get overwhelmed. Start with a few, get comfortable and go from there!
Sue
And, when you see beautiful gardens at other homes, don't get the idea that what you're seeing is based on work done several years ago. Great gardens are the result of work done yesterday, and a few hours the week before, and missing a day of fishing back in July because the garden needed attention. It's not a hobby for couch potatoes, and the work is good for muscle tone (and sore feet).
Can you explain that to my neighbors? They love looking at my garden and see that I am always working in it. But I get to look at the lack of hours design they have in their yards. It is possible to create a low maintenance landscape that is nice to look at as long as you don't believe that is all created by weeds, kid toys, garbage bags and other junk. Sue
Murder is always an option, but it depends on how fast you can dig graves and plant something on top of them. :-) When I first started making raised planting beds, they were about 8 feet long, and looked very much like graves. Neighbors who knew about my dislike for dogs asked uncomfortable questions occasionally about the "graves". I used to just smile.
Things could always be worse, though:
Just a funny story... sometimes things disappear around our neighborhood. We had a couple wheelbarrows stolen, the neighbor had a weedeater stolen, things that kids or people on drugs can get money for. Well, my husband decided to get back at them. His Dad had given him a mower to throw away. No way to repair this mower. My husband decide to see how long it would take for this mower to walk away. So he sat it out by the street and waited. A week went by. We had a neighbor that watch this kid come down the street on a bike and go by our house several times. Then he came running down the street, grabbed the mower and disappeared. Next thing she saw was him coming down the street on his bike with a gas can! We got a chuckle. My husband did it again with a worthless chainsaw. That took 2 weeks. We decided to hold of on any other items just in case someone would catch on and would decide to return the favor.
The thing that amazes me is the neighbors with the junk design yards never get anything stolen.
Sue
We've had the same problem with theft. The response from the cops reminds me of a Far Side cartoon. Scene: A clock repairman is collapsed on his workbench, dead. Not only has he been shot, but every clock in the place has been hit, too, so they're all stopped, showing the same time. Three cops. One is saying "Well, we know how he was killed. Now, we just need to determine when all this happened".
Three times in a month, thefts here have happened after residents called 911 to report kids on bikes between midnight and 3:00 AM. I spotted them last week and called the cops. It's one of those neighborhoods whose streets are all dead ends and cul-de-sacs. There are only 2 ways out. No guarantee that the cops could find these kids, but easier than other neighborhoods. What does the cop do? Stops at my house FIRST to ask me what the kids look like! I explained that because of three previous thefts, ANY kid on a bike at this time of night should be questioned because it's a friggin pattern. He says he needs a description. I said that because my neighbors have too damned many lights on, everything's a silhouette, but the APPEARED to be non-white kids. The cops asks "Were they black, or Hispanic?" Excuse me?????? Go find anyone on a bike and have a chat with them! Based on the last 3 thefts, they're carrying other peoples' garage door openers, stolen from cars.
I'm waiting for a call back from the police chief. Grrrrr.....
Just a few months ago undercover cops by chance watched a kid take a tire off a car and stroll down the street on his skateboard with it. They called backup..... like you needed back up for a kid with a tire on a skateboard...but next thing we had 4 cop cars on our street! They found other stuff on him, drugs I think so he is going to stay in jail for a minute. But when ever you call the cops the whole city of cops come running like there isn't anything else going on! I guess I should be relieved we get response so fast. But they have told us they know where all the drug houses are but can't do anything about it. We as a neighborhood just need to let those house know that we know and maybe they will move on....to another neighborhood!!! That dosen't solve the problem just gives it to someone else! Sue
it depends on the zone you are in, the amount of sunlight, soil, etc. I have a very small back yard, 25' x 25'. here is it a couple years ago (gotta update it!) I drew the whole thing out, planned the plantings
this summer I had 2 parties, both time with over 20 pe>My dad wants to start a garden; however, we do not have a large yard.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ List Manager: Puregold Goldfish List at
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.