Low Maintenance Plants

[sleuth]

Looking for some ideas on landscaping. I want plants that I don't have to do much besides actually planting them for the area around my front door and porch. It gets lots of sunlight.

Who out there knows their stuff and can point me in the right direction?

 

[vraiblonde]

Don't even think about it, Huntr. :grrrr:

 

[fttrsbeerwench]

This girl loves plants!

Any landscaping will require some amount of effort. This is what i usually do

I dislike evergreens but maybe one or two bluespruce on corners look nice year round.
I generally plant, Hosta( good in hotspots,gets really big)
Iris ( easy, comes back every year, but it spreads so you will have to break it up eventually)
I love dafodils, pretty , fragrant and easy.
Plant a bed with some good flowers that makes easy seed pods so you can replant them, I like Rudbekia( black-eyed susan), marigold, shasta daisy( my fave flower) Look for plants native to this region.
I have seen sweet pea grow wild around here
Hang baskets from your deck, I do petunia in the spring. and mums are a good fall plant. If worse comes to worse you can stick fakies in the pots to brighten up your deck till spring!!! hahaha!

If you have kids, watch out for poisonous vegetaion. I have books on plants. you can use a search engine to find what ever you need: local, poisonous, attracts butterflies, keep away deer. Good luck!!

 

[huntr1]

Don't even think about it, Huntr. :grrrr:

WTF do I have to do with this post?

 

[happyappygirl]

Rudebeckia - Otherwise known as black eyed susan. They fill in quickly and flower all summer. Shasta Daisy are in the same family but are white, and equally as pretty. Use medium sized sandstones, or bricks set into the ground as a border, this works well to keep them inline, AND to keep weeds from spreading into the flower bed. For full sun, ornamental grasses are also a nice background or anchoring plant on each end of the bed (mind the height here and don't place tall ones in front of a window). Newspapers laid out, wetted down and covered with mulch 2 times a year controls weeds nicely. Daylilies, irises and such are nice when they bloom but are ikky when blooming is done kind of weedy looking (not my cup of tea).... Me LOVES to garden...
I have a nice landscaping layout i can email you too if you want. gives good detail. pm me your email addy.

 

[happyappygirl]

I saw a GORGEOUS privacy fence covered with Hyacinth beans peeking over it...MAN that was pretty. They generally reseed themselves nicely if you have a boring fence to cover and you can collect them and give them as gifts at Xmas too. I have a big bag of them, and put them in pretty jars with printed instructions and a picture.

 

[rhumbpunch]

Any landscaping will require some amount of effort. This is what i usually do

I dislike evergreens but maybe one or two bluespruce on corners look nice year round.
I generally plant, Hosta( good in hotspots,gets really big)
Iris ( easy, comes back every year, but it spreads so you will have to break it up eventually)
I love dafodils, pretty , fragrant and easy.
Plant a bed with some good flowers that makes easy seed pods so you can replant them, I like Rudbekia( black-eyed susan), marigold, shasta daisy( my fave flower) Look for plants native to this region.
I have seen sweet pea grow wild around here
Hang baskets from your deck, I do petunia in the spring. and mums are a good fall plant. If worse comes to worse you can stick fakies in the pots to brighten up your deck till spring!!! hahaha!

If you have kids, watch out for poisonous vegetaion. I have books on plants. you can use a search engine to find what ever you need: local, poisonous, attracts butterflies, keep away deer. Good luck!!

Great ideas from fttrsbeerwench!

As she said, the shasta daisy, black eyed susan, and most of the daisy family will re-seed themselves, and spread. If they begin to overun their location, thin them to other parts of your yard.

Hostas are very low-maintenance, but prefer more shady areas.

Iris are a spring bloomer, and that's it for the year.

Daylillies come in many varieties, bloom mid-summer, and like iris low-maintenance.

Many varieties of low to mid-size ground cover, junipers, spruce, etc. Liriope is a plant it and forget it type.

Lambs ear, and four-o'clocks are fast growers, and replenish each year, with little to no intervention.

With most of these plants, all you reall need to do is hack them back when they start to die-off in the fall, and apply all-purpose fertilizer through the growing season.

Green acres nursery off of friendship school, wide selection, good prices.

Good luck

 

[kwillia]

I went to Kwillias the other day. She had some really neat plants/flowers along her sidewalk. They were very shiney and green and the flowers were flawless...I honestly thought plastic would fade

The lady at the market said you wouldn't be able to tell they were fake... that was a waste of $9.50...

 

[fttrsbeerwench]

Wow!

What great imput!!!
I have always had hosta in sunnyplaces, sometimes growing as large a wheel barrow, others only got as big as a basketball. I think that had alot to do with the soil though..OHwell I dunno everything about anything.
I dug up a ton of iris from around my pool at my old house and tossed it down the bank, the next year it was everywhere!!! that stuff is tough!!
I prefer wildflowers above all else. I like it natural and woodsy looking. If you are in to herbs at all, the purple cone flower is pretty and functional.




http://www.mdflora.org/

I can't stress enough, the use of non-native plants; these tend to crowd out what naturally occurs in the area. Somethings, like english ivy look good, but are more trouble than they are worth. Do your research. Plants more trees, at least three a year as far as I am concerned. Recycle.Eat whole foods.
Love the earth, you would be nothing without it. MUAHHH!!!

 

[jazz lady]

I prefer wildflowers above all else. I like it natural and woodsy looking. If you are in to herbs at all, the purple cone flower is pretty and functional.

http://www.mdflora.org/

I can't stress enough, the use of non-native plants; these tend to crowd out what naturally occurs in the area. Somethings, like english ivy look good, but are more trouble than they are worth. Do your research.

I totally agree with the use of non-native plants. I have a lot of native Maryland species plants in my beds. I got most of them from Lower Marlboro Nursery. The nursery is open by appointment only except for a yearly open house, but she does mail order. The web site is a great reference, too.

 

[jazz lady]

I've had my best luck with bare dirt.

Me, too.

The other common mistake is to buy the el cheapo 1 gal specimens and then plant them too close together because they look small to you. When they are mature, you end up with a crowded mess. Read the planting directions on the label. If done right the first few years it will look somewhat sparse until everything matures.

Excellent advice. Too many people go cheap and get the small size, then plant them close together to get the "mature" look. You've got to leave them room to grow. When I planted my herb bed this spring, it looked pretty sparse, but now - at the end of the growing season - it has filled in nicely.

 

[FromTexas]

Hemp grows pretty well without needing much attention. In fact, if you have any neighbor college kids, they may watch it for you...for free.

 

[fttrsbeerwench]

Good Idea!!!!

Hemp grows pretty well without needing much attention. In fact, if you have any neighbor college kids, they may watch it for you...for free.

Hemp is a VERRRRYY versatile and important plant, I would grow it but there is that legal thing, you know!! I suggest that people check on line for hemp sites so they can see for themselves how useful this plant could be if used properly. Even is you don 't condone smoking it or using it to get high( no I don't if that's what your thinking) I think that the other uses far out weighs the negative aspect of the plant. In truth hemp only contains trace amounts of THC, the chemical that causes the psychoactive "high" that is predominent in marijuana. I have even heard that certain everyday foods contain THC adn can cause a positive drug test..WEIRD HUH!!!!