New to gardening and need tips/advice ?

I have only tried planting flowers for a flowerbed once but it didn't work well.
For starters I live in ohio and I want to make a flowerbed along the front of my house so mornings would be shade and come early afternoon to late evening would be direct sunlight. I created a space last spring along the part of the house that is about 2' deep and 6' long and another 2' deep and about 10' long.
I really would like to find what would be good to plant so that I would have flowers from spring through early fall. And preferably flowers that don't require too much care. working full-time and having 4 young children doesn't give much time but we really want to plant seeds and have pretty flower beds.
Any advice and tips are greatly appreciated. Thank you ?

 

Welcome to GardenStew, ________ ____....
We have members from all over the world here and we're glad to include you in the group..
We look forward to getting to know you,,,,,,,,, and your Family, friends, children, pets, etc......
Eileens advice is spot on; maybe some of our Ohio members near to you will chime in vvith area specific tips..
Hank

 

Hi. Good luck with your gardening. Just a small comment to what has already been said . You are obviously a very busy person so suggest you choose labour saving plants - suitable as suggested for your area hardy herbaceous perennials which once established and doing well perform in the Summer, dying back in Autumn and reappearing in Spring to do it all again year on year all being well. Some wonderful plants in that section in many varieties both for flowers and foliage - look at the pictures posted on this site for some good ideas. Have fun. Syd.

 

Thank you eileen and henry. Unfortunately none of my neibors seem to have any gardens or flower beds except the one across the street. But all they have are daisies and tulips
sydney thanks for the advice. I dont know much about what you said definitely not garden vocabulary fluent lol but im going to look into it and at some pictures. Thanks again everyone

 

The first thing to do, Pamela, is to prepare your soil. If you take care of that you are much more likely to succeed with your garden. For example, do you have a compost bin? Those vegetable scraps are important plant food.

Do you know much about your soil? How old is your neighbourhood? Many developers remove all the rich top soil and leave only the B profile, leaving the soil without needed humus.

I'm not able to make specific species recommendations since I'm not local to you, however preparing your soil is the first step for all gardening. Also, if you want a beautiful property I suggest coming up with a landscape plan for the whole allotment before you select plant species.

 

Pamela, here is a site that lists native plants for Ohio: http://www.plantnative.org/rpl-inoh.htm
and another that lists plants for specific uses: http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/1000/1242.html
Being in Texas, I can't really comment on specific plants for you, but I've gardened for years and I do have a couple of suggestions. A two-foot wide bed is pretty narrow--many plants are wider than that, and if crammed up against your house foundation the plant will not develop on that side. Widen your beds to at least 3', and 4' is even better.
Also, putting in annuals every year can get expensive. Mix in some perennials (ones that come back year after year, as opposed to annuals that are one season and kaput).
With your busy life, mulch is the answer. A 4" to 6" layer of mulch around plants will cut down on weeding immensely.
And finally, don't get plants that are all the same height. Up and down is so much more natural and attractive than every plant being the same height.

 

Hi Pamela
Welcome to the wonderful world of gardening.
First, I would start by contacting your local state cooperative extension office. Here is a link to the list for Ohio http://extension.osu.edu/lao#county. Ask for the Master Gardener help line or coordinator. The Master Gardeners are a group of volunteers whose mission is education of the community. I spent 10 years as a Master Gardener in PA and I can vouch for the good work they do. Here is a link to the MG website for Ohio http://mastergardener.osu.edu

They can help you to first do a soil test and then will help you to understand the results. They can also recommend the best plants for your region.

I agree that perennials ( plants that come back every year ) would be the most cost effective but annuals will give you color all season long and can give you quick success if you choose the right ones. I live in PA and when I have an area that gets a combination of sun and shade, I use begonias. Be sure to talk to an expert on plants in your area to choose the right plants for you.

I would recommend that you don't try seeds to start but rather buy the plants from a local nursery. That way you can use a pre-emergent like Preen to keep the weeds down. Preen works by keeping seeds from germinating so you would not use it in an area where you plant seeds. Preen plus mulch will help to keep the weeds down and thus provide the low maintenance you are looking for.
Once you get some experience you can expand your beds and do a mixture of annuals and perennials and try seed starting.

Good luck and let us know how you go.

Donna Moyer

 

I agree with what everyone else said about prepping your soil first. You can go to home depot/lowe's type of store and find some bags of composted manure that you can add to your existing to soil to help improve it. I soil tested my garden this spring with a home kit. This gave me a little idea about what I need to add to get it in good growing condition. If you have access to free composted manure some place, that's even better. I looked on craigslist and got a pickup truck full for 25.00.
With most perennials you will be waiting two to three years for them to mature to blooming size if you want to start them by seed. Your better off buying perennials started already. If you want to do annuals from seed you can start with easy ones like marigolds, zinnias, alyssum, four o'clocks or really any you can find at the dollar store (if you want to go the cheap route). Last year was my first growing season in the place I live now and I just threw in dollar store seeds everywhere I had room. I have to say, they really did well and all they needed was water once in a while. So it all depends on how much you would like to fuss. Good luck and let us know what you decided to plant.