Any amature landscape designers out there? **UPDATE - PICS ADDED**

[SunnyDawn]

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Yes all of my sedums come back in spring they just don't all look great through winter, and yes I have had most varieties of penstemon start to look scraggly after about 3 years but I just yank them up and let the volunteer seedlings take over. Haven't tried to grow them here in Nevada yet. I've not had good luck with the pine leaf penstemons but I think it was my clay soil (which is why I didn't try them here, my soil is almost as bad as caliche). I stuck with really xeric plants, a lot of sedums and salvias and quite a few roses (which are my favorites). I water my roses about twice a month (unless we are having really hot, hot weather) but when I do water them I give them a good long soak. I have to amend, amend , amend to grow roses here but I think they're worth it.

I also have columbine which thrive only in spring here but they reseed and come back every year, poppys, sunflowers, peonies, african daisies, delphinium, Buddleia, phlox (both of which get a little shabby looking in the heat of summer), japanese maples, clematis, lonicera (which is poisonous so keep away from chickens), bamboo (there are a couple of varieties which can handle the cold but they haven't thrived here and don't get running bamboo, ever), achillea, yucca, caryopteris, snap dragons (can't help it, I love them but they are not xeric) and virginia creeper for the chickens (it can be a little too vigorous so I only plant it where the chickens will keep it under control). Drawing a blank on what else is out there. Oh lavender but it is a non-woody variety and stays nice looking without a trim. My favorite salvia is Salvia pitcheri (gets pretty wide, for a salvia, so give it a little room to spread out), a truely sky blue salvia that waits until fall to bloom giving the garden a last burst of color but it has to be pinched back a couple of times in spring to look good, I also have some ornamental oreganos (love them), and some agastache & oenothera (a small plant which looks great in spring but gets a little sparse and leggy later on). Tried mondo grass but it failed and gaura but it also died.

I do miss my garden in the Bay Area, it was so diverse it would take me an hour or more to list everything and it bloomed year round! I also had quite a few fruit trees including citrus (which, of course, would never make it here

). I really miss my freesias! They smell so fantastic! Also the daphne odora. For those of you that have areas away from hot afternoon sun and whose temps never drop below 25 degrees this is a must have. A winter blooming plant that will have visitors combing your garden to find out where that heavenly scent is coming from!

Any one else feel like listing their garden plants? I love to hear what everyone has in their gardens! It's also helpful to know what doesn't work in different areas.

 

[mom'sfolly]

OOOHHH, I forgot larkspur. It is an annual but it reseeds really well. It is a grand show in the spring, and then you pull it all out. I like it as a massed planting. And if I could grow foxglove here I would. I don't know if that is drought tolerant, though. That was in a garden where water wasn't an issue.

I like gardening, but it is too darned hot here to do as much as I like....

I have roses, columbine, mist flower, obedient plant, a native phlox, giant liriope ( I think that's it), larkspur, mums, coneflower (a good one for your area), several varieties of holly, with a weeping yaupon being my favorite; holly fern, artemesia, striped grass, dusty miller, daffodils, several different salvias. a couple of citrus that I think bit it in our recent very cold weather, dwarf pear, fig, rosemary, potted Hawaiian t,iand some other stuff that I can't remember now. The chickens have done a job on the back yard, because I let them freerange, and the neighborhood kids have destroyed one bed in the front. Most of my stuff is hardy perennials or self seeding annuals.

 

[SunnyDawn]

Larkspur (or delphinium) are also poisonous but very pretty. They do require quite a bit of water to thrive. Yes coneflowers do very well here, I see them in many yards and they are very colorful and cheerful flowers.

Oh to live in Austin where I could grow so many more things!

 

[Coopa Cabana]

I love this one: "Friends Don't Let Friends Buy Annuals" . . . from 'Plants Delight Nursery'. I use annuals in planters and hanging baskets only.

I can try and work my way around the yard - some Xeric, some not. I'm in Denver (zone 5):
Caryopteris (Blue Mist Shrub); lots of different Berberis for the purple foliage - some also have red stems for winter; Hostas in the North in the shade; species Tulips - I have some "Heart's Delight" that have been coming back (and blooming usually 1st day of Spring) religiously for over 20 years; Purple Gas Plant (Dictamus Purpurea?) - takes years to establish, but then Wow; lots of Tall Bearded Iris all over; Gypsophila (Baby's Breath); Smoke Bush, again for purple foliage; Hollyhocks; Rose Champion; Stonecrop Sedums; Peonies; Antique Roses; Sambucus (Purple Elder Bush); Daylilies; Agastache; various Salvia, various Coral Bells for their foliage; ornamental grasses; Weeping Ornamental Peach tree; Althea Rose of Sharon shrubs; Purple Sandcherry (shrub and tree form); "Tiny Trumpets" Honeysuckle - also a climbing Lonicera; Lilacs "Beauty of Moscow" and "Miss Canada"; Columbines; several different coneflowers (Echinecea) - my favorite is one of the species "palida"; Lenten Rose; Shasta Daisies; Jupiter's Beard Centranthus - both red and white; Russian Sage Perovskia; Clematis; perennial Geraniums; Achillea; ornamental Oregano; perennial Hibiscus "Kopper King; Anemone; Mums; Oriental Poppies; Buddleia (Butterfly Bushes).

 

[Coopa Cabana]

As far as design for the OP's islands, I love having different "garden rooms", but I really don't think you have that option here. I would not make your islands all totally different, however, I think this would make everything seem too 'busy', and everything could get lost in the kalidescope. I would strive to find one central element that you can use in all the beds, and then build each one individually from them. It can either be a piece of ornamental hardscape, perhaps a speciman shrub, or maybe even a color scheme. But to keep the eye flowing through the yard (rather than stop and start with each bed), I think there should be some sort of a central theme. SunnyD is the pro here - so I'm sure she can give better advice.

Someone else pointed out earlier and it bears repeating - amend your soil first - you will reap the rewards for years. And depending on your plant selections, you may want to add extra peat to one bed for those plants that like acidic soil.

And just remember to have fun with it, give yourself time, and give your garden a couple of years (usually at least 3), to really get established. (It's OK to add annuals for the 1st couple of years to fill in gaps until the perennials reach maturity.) And unless something is tap-rooted, just about anything can be moved around. Use lots of different foliage colors and textures, and plants of various heights.

I've taken a lot of design classes at Denver Botanic Gardens, and used to spend a ton of time drawing everything out to scale before starting, and spent hours coordinating colors, heights, bloom times, etc. And you know what? Some of the best gardens I've even seen are "just there". I ask the gardener how they planned it all - what was their secret to success? You know what they say - I just buy what I like and find a place for it!!!

 

[AngieChick]

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My gardens are mostly perennials, but I do like to fill in spots with annuals. I just don't think that I could have a garden without zinnias. That said, if you use annuals they are mostly pretty easy to grow from seed. You can get a lot of bang for your buck that way. Especially when you have a young garden, annuals are great for filling it up and allow you to change the look each season. Admittedly, my gardening style is chaotic color. I do have some nice anchor plants and a bit of continuity, but my favorite look is wild abundance.

 

[Coopa Cabana]

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My gardens are mostly perennials, but I do like to fill in spots with annuals. I just don't think that I could have a garden without zinnias. That said, if you use annuals they are mostly pretty easy to grow from seed. You can get a lot of bang for your buck that way. Especially when you have a young garden, annuals are great for filling it up and allow you to change the look each season. Admittedly, my gardening style is chaotic color. I do have some nice anchor plants and a bit of continuity, but my favorite look is wild abundance.

You missed where I said in my next post that's it's Ok in a young garden to fill in the gaps with annuals.

I used to have one spot set aside as a cutting garden only, and it was 100% annuals, 100% from seed - zinnias, cosmos, asters, stocks, straw flowers for drying, etc. I also used to have a large vegetable garden. But that was all 20+ years ago, before my lung surgery and before my scoliosis set in. I just don't bend like I used to!!!

 

[SunnyDawn]

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Good points! Except that my neighbor gardens like that (buys whatever she likes and finds a place for it) and I hate to say it but her yard is a mess! That's how I gardened for years and I have a pretty good eye but after awhile my garden started to look like a box of crayons exploded in it! It was certainly cheerful and I did have a lot of fun with it. And there is something to be said for just having fun with your garden. And Coopa is right, almost anything can be moved of you don't like it, or removed alltogether if it doesn't work in your garden. Most important is that you enjoy it and remember everything is fixable if it doesn't work the first time.

Still it helps to keep a few guidelines in mind like to plant taller plants in the back of a bed (or in the middle in circular planters that are out in the open) and graduate smaller plants towards the front. I'm afraid my neighbor never did this and she has tiny plants completely hidden by huge, 4 foot tall plants that die early on and cover the poor little plants. She also has high water plants with xeric plants and waters them all the same (which is constantly) and wonders why they never thrive.

It can get expensive to garden that way. Still a less formal cottage garden, to me, is much preferable to a super formal garden that takes a ton of time to keep up and doesn't look like anything you'd see in nature. It is easy to over plan or over think your space. Thank you for that reminder Coopa!

I thought your comment about annuals was so funny. I don't plant them because I'm too lazy to plant new ones every year (plus I don't bend so well either these days)!

I do like a garden that uses both but it does require a strong back and a bit of a time commitment each year. Oh except for the annuals I have that reseed themselves. I only use well behaved varieties of these though. Morning Glories are well behaved here but in San Jose they were invasive pests that tried to take over!

 

[vegaschick]

Well. Sunny and Coopa you give very good advice. I can tell that you have good design knowledge and experience. I have a degree in Landscape Architecture and my best advice...get Sunny over to your house!

Otherwise this is what I recommend.

Take pictures/find pics in mags of designs/landscapes/elements you like. Find out what appeals to you. Some people like very formal, orderly spaces, some like very organic, free flowing spaces and some a mix of the two. You need to know what you like.

Figure out what you want to happen in the yard. Activities, uses (who is using it and how often), needs, how much time you have to care for it, and where different uses will ideally occur. This will create spaces/zones you can work with. What will the flow of traffic from space to space/use to use be like? Talk to your family and include them in the discussion and planning as well as the phyisical work. If it's just your project and your space, guess who ends up doing all the work?

Hardscape is the bones of any design. It creates the forms that get fleshed out by the plants and holds everything together. However, you can keep your terraced rock wall and still have a flowing design like Sunny sketched out. Just use plants to soften the hard edges and create those flowing lines. Plants can be used to highlight, hide or blend.

Water usage zones and soil amendment/mulching are critical in NV as is proper plant selection and placement. Get the Sunset book...it's like a bible for plant lovers. Use the public library and internet to learn more about what will work in your area, where to put it and how to care for it. Also pay attention to the mature size of the plant an make your plans with that in mind.

Don't think you have to do it all at once. Figure out what your basic plan is and then fill it in as you can. It takes time for plants to grow and mature which is good cuz money doesn't grow on trees (believe me) and a solid, slow, steady approach will get you where you want to be faster, and cheaper, than throwing together something quickly.

You shouldn't buy plants until you have figured out and done all of the above.

I do have a site you can check out for high elevation plants. I used to work at a nursery here in Vegas (Star Nursery) that has locations in UT too. They have really great info sheets covering a wide range of topics. One of the sheets has recommended plants for elevations over 5000 ft. Here's a link.

http://www.starnursery.com/media/SN_Tips/SN535_Hardy-Plants-Elevated.pdf

Have fun.

 

[Mattemma]

Cool yard!

I have been filling my yard with lots of plants,but edible landscaping is my favorite. Our mini pond is a pain,but has attracted lots of life to the yard.