Free Garden Catalogs

need ideas for flower beds.?

I have 2 areas at the front of my house that I can use to plant things. We just bought this house and I've been just clueless on what to do. The areas have bricks to outline..sort of like a big planter. I wanted to plant tulips soon but what else? Does anyone have some good diy flower garden sites or something to give me an idea on what to do? Thank you guys. For the crape myrtle , can you keep it from growing too tall and more umbrella-ing? Sherry, thank you so much!! I need to find the time frame to plant these things too. I'm not sure what zone I'm in. I'm in oklahoma.

Public Comments

1. why yes i do! http://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images?_adv_prop=image&fr=yfp-t-501-s&va=flower+garden&sz=all
2. well are you going to change the flowers out by season... because mums, pansies and astria are winter flowers... you could go shrubs too... crape myrtle is nice if it is pruned to look like an umbrella tree.. but my favorite is edible... plant rosemary herb (upright) and sage... decorative cabbage, a fruit tree of your choice... apple or peach or whatever is native to your area.. pomegranate is fun too! Fig tree too... good luck....
3. check out Filoli, or Gamble Gardens.. they both do displays using tulips overplanted with annuals.. try google images using those places and i'm sure you'll find things to be inspired by.. you can use violas, pansies, forget me nots, and iceland poppies are all commonly available and will bloom in the spring with the tulips.. Good, long-blooming perrenials are penstemons, many salvias, iberis and alstromeria.. for woody plants, roses give a big bang for the bucks.. i like the ceratostigmas this time of year for their blue flowers and fall color on some. i think they look nice with chondropetalum- a south african rush, and the purple or bronzy foliaged lorapetalums.. sherry
4. Most of Oklahoma is in zone 7, but the northern-most areas are zone 6. When shopping for shrubs and perennials (plants that come back each spring) make sure you are choosing the proper zone. You don't say what direction the front of your house faces. For North facing, you will want to choose plants that thrive in partial to no sun. South and West facing are for sun-loving plants, and East can take 1/2 day of sun, and also does well for shade plants. Unless the gardens are very small, my suggestion is to go with a mix of shrubs, perennials, and annuals. My prettiest gardens are those that have both flowering and foliage shrubs as the background, middle-height perennials for the middle, and low growing annuals for the front of the border for that punch of color. Assuming that your front yard gets at least 1/2 day sun, I would suggest: for shrubs: Burning Bush (green in summer, but blinding-red in autumn, grows about 3 feet tall) Dwarf Yellow Forsynthia (yellow leaves, 3 ft tall) Rose of Sharon (blooms in red, purple, pink or white). This one is taller, like 8-10 ft tall, but is easily pruned to a shorter height. For perennials that are not fussy, try Purple Coneflower (aka Echinacea), Black-Eyed Susans (aka Rudbeckia), Daisies, Lavender, Salvia, Coreopsis and Liatris. All are easy to grow and will give you a variety of colors. For annuals, the easiest to grow are Geranium, Salvia, Allysum, Petunias, Marigolds, and snapdragons. My favorite gardening sites are: www.gardenguides.com www.gardenseeker.com www.parkseed.com Happy gardening!