My garden dreams

I have a ton of wants but also realize I have needs that have to be met as well.

First off, I have 7 kids, 6 of them are still living at home and 5 of those are very active outdoor types. I need a garden that will work with the family without being in the way.

I also homeschool so parts of the garden will be used in a hands on learning aspect. Because I am slightly busy, it also needs to be as non demanding as I can make it once it is established.

I want to use as many native plants as I can and any help with cutting down on weeding is a plus. Whimsical touches are a must. As well as a 'secret' or adult only place where I can hide away when I want.

I have the basic idea in my head but any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

I'm moving from a zone 7 to a 9, or at least the guy at the nursery in Covington told me it was a 9. I know that my air potato plants are invasive so they won't be coming with me but are there any others I shouldn't plant?

Question for the folks who do water features. Is there a good place to go look at ideas? I'm thinking an above ground feature with no fish, just plants.

I was told that bougainvillea should be treated as an annual. Is there a place I shouldn't plant it? Wisteria here is a weed that can do serious damage to roofs and siding and I know that bougainvillea climbs as well. Don't want to hurt my house

Thanks for any suggestions. I'll add a layout pic and some sketches as soon as I scan them.

 

My bougainvillea is planted in a pot and comes back from the roots every year. We are in zone 8b so we may get a little colder than zone 9. I guess it would depend on your soil also, we have heavy clay, yuck. I know that in a tropical climate they do tend to go a little wild, but we are sub tropical.

A lot of gingers do good here and come back every year, try shell ginger, hidden lily ginger, and pinecone ginger. A must have in every La. garden is crinum lily, they get big but have a beautiful bloom. If you do roses make sure they are disease resistant, unless you plan on using a 3 in 1 systematic feeding solution every six weeks. Daylilies are care free. Mexican heather, plumbago, mexican petunia, and irises are also low maintenance plants. Cannas do wonderful, but tend to get leaf rollers, which require regular dusting and of course they have to be divided often. Some of the dwarf cannas do not tend to multiply as quickly, especially China Doll and Lucifer.

I will post more as I think of them.

 

Family friendly
What do your kids enjoy doing outdoors? Sports?

They like to ride bikes, frisbee, touch football, jump rope, play with cars etc. I have ages that range from 14 to 8 so a few different things.

Learning aspects
I'm intrigued by what you meant here. More info would be helpful

Sure! I use the garden when teaching about how things grow, what happens during the season, composting, how plants help with erosion and they get their own little plots to plant whatever they like. We like to do experiments with controls, plants with and without water, with and without sunlight, some are fed and some are not.

Native plantings
I found a great link for you which should give some ideas about Louisiana gardening.

Thanks! Will read up on that.


Whimsical touches
Have you considered garden junk LittleSister. We have a whole forum devoted to it.

Very cool. Had not read down that far yet. I love garden junk and am a self professed bowling ball geek

 

My bougainvillea is planted in a pot and comes back from the roots every year.

Thanks for that info. I can certainly plant it in a pot and place it where I want it. Looking forward to trying my hand at growing it.

Daylilies are care free. Mexican heather, plumbago and irises are also low maintenance plants.

I have all of those plus my roses. I love roses so don't mind the little extra care if the rest of the garden is easier. I'll go research ginger. Sounds interesting.

I will post more as I think of them.

Thanks!

 

LittleSister have you had a look at Pondlady's blog? She has masses of information about water features and her photographs are out of this world!! There may be something there that will help you out. If not then I'm sure she will give you any advice you need.

Will def go have another looksee and try to read up on her blog some more, thanks!

Here's a website with a list of plants that will do well in zone 9.

http://www.backyardgardener.com/shade/zone9.html

I also found this plant selector website that you might find useful.

http://www.growit.com/PlantInfo/LandScape.Htm

Great links, thanks so much! Will have some fun reading up on that last one.

 

You can have all the ginger you want, but usually in Covington it will die back in the winter and come back in the spring.
Don't rely much on the nursery owner. Covington is zone 8b. NO only makes zone 9 because it is south of the lake.
Grass is great for sports, but very high maintenance. I used to put it in landscapes where there were kids/sports.
Longue Vue gardens has a Saturday 'dig, do discover' for kids. You can steal lots of ideas from them.
Bougainvilla likes to be dry and confined. And it is a bear to take care of because it bites. I would probably not put it where kids can get bitten.
Ginger Fortson is the Ag Center extension center agent. I would use her expertise as much as possible. Dan Gill, a good friend of mine, has a couple of great book about LA plants and landscaping.
If you are looking for a landscape architect, I can refer you. I also know some great landscape contractors. email me and I will give you my phone number.

 

Thanks for the info.

I'm in Mandeville, is the zone different there? He was the only guy that I could find close to my area at the time.

I def want to buy for the right area. That would suck to get things that are more work when I could go a different route.

 

I have an air potato here in Texas and mine is in a hanging basket.It hasn't invaded anything is so pretty.I also have a Virginia Creeper (PS: Parthenocissus quinquefolia (Virginia creeper)) in a pot. Its invasive in Montana .

 

Mandeville and Covington are minutes apart. I have air potato growing all over and they do well and if you think they are getting out of hand, just pull them up. I stay far away from Virginia creeper.