Gardening & Landscaping
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Border plants
I am totally new to the gardening thing, but my yard needs some serious help.
We are in CT (zone 5...i think) and I am looking for full shade border plants, and full sun border plants. I would love something that flowered all summer if possible. Bonus if they smell nice or attract butterflies/hummingbirds. Any suggestions?
Re: Border plants
I live in Michigan, and used to live in Massachusetts, and I think our zones are similar.
(If this explanation is too basic, forgive me, but I don't know what you know)
You are going to want to wait until maybe March or April, maybe even May, after the last frost, then go to the nearest home improvement store when they put out their annuals. "Perennials" are things that bloom year after year, like carnations, lillies, tulips. There are also perennial bushes like lilacs, peonies, hydrangeas. "Annuals" are things that bloom all spring & summer, but only for that year. They have to be replaced every year.
Perennial border plants are things like Hostas, which come in a variety of colors. They get a tall skinny flower once, but they take up a lot of room and spread, so they are good in shade or sun. Lilly of the valley are perennials, and spread a lot, but they smell so good that I have to mention them, LOL.......they are one of my favorites. They do best in shade.
Annual border plants are things like petunias (get the wave petunias if you can, they don't need to have the dead flowers pinched off), also look at "ground cover" items. Pansies are nice too.
I get a catalog from this company every year, and they always have great ideas. I go to the local Lowe's or Home Depot to buy the flowers, however.
www.springhillnursery.com
Also this one: www.provenwinners.com. They are sold at Lowe's.
You want your border plants to be fairly low, roughly 3-6" tall. Taller flowers or bushes would go behind them.
After having gardens for over 30 years, I've narrowed down what I do with my plants every year. I find a few border annuals or groundcovers, then have a lot of potted annuals for color. I put pots on either side of my front steps, then hang a few from shepherd's hooks around the front and back yard so I have color all spring-summer-fall, before or after the perennials have bloomed. The easiest thing I've found for potted plants (and I fought this so long because I thought of them as "old people flowers") are geraniums. They come in a variety of colors, don't have to be deadheaded (pinching off dead flowers). I put them in pots with an ivy or other annual that grows long.
Good luck with your garden! I love having one.
Thank you, thank you. thank you! I was thinking of lily of the valley actually but I was afraid they'd take over my yard. I have tons of time home in the summer, so I'm not worried about upkeep and I do want to have a pretty yard