Garden Essentials - The best garden plants ever (from someone who sort of hates gardening)

Gardening is something that I'm learning to love...slowly. In our first house, I started out really eager and ready to create the garden of my dreams. But I soon realized just how much work it is to establish and maintain a garden. And I was sort of done with it. Plus, we had the neighbours from hell (seriously) who were out in their backyard every second of the day, so we did our best to avoid the backyard all together. That's a whole different story...

Anyway, over time we managed to get a nice garden going and learned a lot through trial and error. I tried many, MANY, types of plants. Our last garden was ours for ten years, so I had a lot of time to experiment. I learned that the picture you see on the little plastic thing they stick on the plant pot isn't always the what you're going to get, and I also learned that you should actually read those little plastic things. And keep them. 

When we moved into this house, we inherited a really established garden, but one that had been sadly neglected. That's the thing about gardens, they can't just be pretty and cool on their own, which is what drives me nuts about them. But, I'd rather work a bit and have something nice then have a mess out there. 

Now that I have about 13 years of gardening under my belt (and by gardening, I mean spending about an hour out there once a month-ish), plus the wisdom of my Mom and Grandma who are actually real gardeners, I have narrowed down a list of must-have plants for our garden, and I thought I would share. I'm NOT an awesome gardener. Not even close. But that's why these plants are perfect for me. I can ignore them 95% of the time, and they still look cool. Also, they look good all season. The worst part about gardening (apart from the weeds, oh the weeds) is trying to pick plants an coordinating when they flower. I don't do that at all any more. I like plants that always look good.So if you have a garden, or are going to create one, grab some of these. 

So here we go.

These things pop up in my garden here and there all on their own, I've never actually had to buy one (our garden is sort of like a forest, seriously). But they are SO pretty. Not only are they super easy to grow (we don't do anything to them at all) but what I like most is that after they have flowered, they still have nice leaves. More info on Bleeding Hearts here.

Juniper is my favourite evergreen. Evergreens are so important to make things look full, and  this one looks really blue compared to all the other green, which I love. The one pictured (and the one I have several of in my garden ) is Juniper 'Blue Chip'. More info on Junipers here.

Another evergreen, boxwood is a new favourite of mine. I used to think these were only good for those perfectly square hedges, but they are so versatile. I have several planted and they are just cute, roundish shrubs. Easy to prune, love them. More info on Boxwood here.

Our first summer in this house, I really didn't do anything to the garden, but I did plant a deep purple clematis (Jackmanii, to be exact). I would have taken our old one with us if I could have. These are so easy and quick to grow, and the flowers are just amazing. My Grandma and Mom always told me that Clematis like to have 'cold feet', so they said to put a few small light stones at the base. They're Irish women who have kept beautiful gardens for YEARS, so I listen. More Clematis info here.

Our first dogwood was in this house, so it's a newer favourite as well. We have a big one at the edge of our pond, and it's really pretty all summer...but the best part is actually when the leaves all fall and bright red stems are left all winter. It's so pretty. Ours gets a little out of hand when it comes to the size, but I just give it a good trim in the spring and that's it. More info on Dogwood here.

Oh, Smokebush. You are a crazy plant, but I love you. Smokebush is a shrub that produces really bizarre, smoke-like flowers...but the foliage is AMAZING. It's so many colours, red, purple, green...and in the fall it is incredible. These get enormous, so pruning is essential, but they are so worth it. Again, a quick prune in the spring and you're done. More Smokebush info here.

Hosta's seem boring, I know. But, years ago I was at this lady's house (I used to go with my Grandma to neighbourhood garden meetings...ok maybe I am a gardener) and she had a 'hosta garden'. It hadn't occurred to me just how many varieties there were, and how cool they look when they're bunched together. So now I make I have one that's kind of blue, one that's green and white, one that's yellow-y...you get the idea. My favourites, which are 'Frances William', 'Great Expectations', 'Mediovariegata' and 'Elegans'. There are a billion to choose from, and they are the easiest plant of all to grow. More Hosta info here.

I used to hate this plant. Something about the colours, I just wasn't into it. But then it occured to me, that unless I want to go crazy with flowers (which I don't), then everything is green, and you need tons of different green for it to look good. So, I started adding this in, and now I have about four of them. Love them. And they're actually evergreen too. Bonus. More euonymus info here. (Note: it's really, really hard to spell Euonymus. Just saying.)

We have a climbing hydrangea that's growing up the wall and around our back door. Before we lived here I had never seen one, and I think this is one of those things that I would plant right away if we ever moved. Something about it, it just looks right. More Climbing Hydrangea info here.

These guys are just cool looking. And so easy to grow. And they muliply. Love them. Who doesn't love a cute succulent? More Hens and Chicks info here.

Ok, so I don't actually like this plant just on it's own. It's sort of spindly and fragile looking. But, when it's grouped in with the other plants on the list, the colour is perfect. You won't get colour like that, that lasts all season, from any other plant. The one I have is 'Christa'. More Heuchera info here.

Full disclosure, peonies are a pain in the ass. They bloom, and then they fall over because they're so top-heavy, and then you either leave them like that (which looks like crap), buy a metal brace thingy for them (which looks like crap) or cut off the flowers. But...for a couple of days...they are AMAZINGGGGG. So, it's worth it. I don't like the pale pinky ones, I like the brightest, most intense pink/red I can find. This one is 'Sword Dance', and it's so perfect. More Peony info here.

This shrub is one you HAVE to have. It's not green, for one, and it's the prettiest shape, and colour, and has cute little flowers in the spring that smell delicious. Most of the time though it's just a really great, deep red/purple shrub. More Sandcherry info here.

I'm not really that into roses, I always thought they were way too hard...but there are two kinds of roses that we have that I LOVE. The one pictured is called 'Autumn Delight', and those white petals actually go pinky peach in the fall, it's so pretty. The other is 'Champlain' which is a really intense red. There is also a rose here in our garden that I'm not sure what it is...but it's the colour of a sunset. Seriously. It's gorgeous. And FYI, keeping roses is so not hard. In the spring, you prune them a bit to keep their shape. The end. Ok, so there's probably more, but that's all I do and it's been working for years. More Rose info here.

This is a ground cover, so it spreads out wherever it can. We have a rather large property for city dwellers, and there is a LOT of garden space that needs to be filled. It would cost a fortune to fill it all, so we've made use of ground covers here and there and this one is my fav. It has really nice glossy green leaves, and the little purple flower is pretty cute too. Zero maintenance. It just grows and grows. More Periwinkle info here.

One more flower for the list. Now, I'm not into just any tulips. Our house had a million plain white tulips in the front garden and I'm slowly ripping them out. But this tulip...the Black Parrot Tulip...oh I love it so. We had a ton at the old house and I wanted to desperately to dig up the garden and look for the bulbs. I guess I'll just spent the 8 bucks and order some more. More Parrot Tulip info here. 

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Ok...so that's it! My list of plants that you must have if you A) want a garden that looks good all season, and B) kind of suck at gardening.

If I've missed any of your favs let me know! 

Note: Depending on the zone you're in, these may not work for your garden (if you don't know what the zones are, you can check here). 

Also, I order my tulip bulbs through Vesey's. They're great, and they have many other plants to choose from. If you are looking for tulip bulbs, they don't sell them right now because it's not the right time to plant them, but they'll be there in the fall...I'll be ordering mine then.

And lastly, there are probably many, many mispelled plant names in this post. They don't seem to register with the spell check, so I did my best. I apologize sincerely. I tried. Gimme a break.

Photo credits:

Bleeding Heart  ///  Juniper  ///  Boxwood  ///  Clematis

Dogwood  ///  Smokebush  ///  Hosta  ///  Euonymus

Hydrangea  ///  Hens and Chicks  ///  Heuchera  ///  Peony

Sandcherry  ///  Rose  ///  Periwinkle  ///  Tulip

Egg Bird Feeders by J Schatz

Now that I'm getting the garden all set for summer, I'm constantly looking at outdoor accessories. How cute are these egg bird feeders by J Schatz? Love.

Image via Swiss Miss

Side of the house

While most of our time is spent making the inside of the house pretty, and the front/back garden, there is a small, badly neglected area on the left side of our house. We don't really see this, and it was easy to not notice the four foot tall weeds that had been growing there. But, our poor neighbours are subject to this, as are the people who drive past the house from the left hand side...ha ha.

So, I spent my Canada Day tackling this area. I had started this a while ago, yanking out the weeds, but yesterday I finished it up. The majority of the area was covered in old faded mulch, so we got rid of that. Then we divided the area up so that we can have half garden, and half grass.

It's a start, and looks pretty bare, but in a year or so this should actually look pretty decent. The left side will soon be covered in grass seed, and although it's tough to see, there are shrubs and perennials all along the right hand side. We will be buying nice dark soil to cover this area as well.We will also put a few garden lights in, to continue as they do along the front garden areas. My only regret with this project is not taking a 'before' shot, because it was pretty horrific. But you'll just have to take our word for it....

Here's hoping they grow quickly!!

Shrubs!

Our garden is a work in progress, and will be for years to come. I like to tackle one small section of it at a time...and usually a few months later I change my mind and redo it all. Yes, I'm crazy.

My most recent re-do is the area in our front garden, to the left of the front door. To the right, there are lovely full grown shrubs there, some evergreens, it's quite nice as is. The other side is, well, bare.

Last night my wonderful husband once again humoured me and took me to Home Depot, where I bought what I'm hoping to be all of the shrubs needed to fill in this space.

Now, as Billy says, that part of the garden will look great in about ten years or so, ha ha ha. Oh well, you have to start somewhere!!

Spring cleaning (in the garden, that is…)

As the days are getting longer I have found myself back in gardening mode. That's not to say that I actually enjoy the process of gardening yet...I don"t. But, I'm trying to coax myself into loving it. Considering we bought a house with a massive garden...I have no choice but to learn to love it.

In these early spring months, the garden doesn't look very pretty. This is a picture from last year, when we were putting our offer on the place, but it looks pretty much like this now too:

Last year we left the garden as-is, to see what would come up, what needed to be changed, that sort of thing. This year it's time to make some changes!

First on the agenda is a massive clean. In our case, it's not quite as simple as picking up some twigs. We have actual whole dead trees back there. Now, you CAN rent a wood chipper at Home Depot for $165 per day...but Billy has decided that he would rather do the cutting by hand (he's crazy). So, he will take care of that part of it, and I will gather the seven billion dead leaves that are back there.

Then it's time to really get started. We're considering short-term and long-term major changes, and we're both super excited about it! Here are some of our short term ideas:

1. Recreate sections of the garden beds. Some of the existing plants are great, but there are huge areas that need to be pulled out complete. I also want to add lots of shrubs, which can be so pretty and low-maintenance. One thing that we have found very useful are the garden plans available on BHG.com. If you go to the Garden Plans section of their website, you can download full plans, including plant names and a map on where to plant everything. We’re obsessed with them! You do have to register, which is a very simple and free process, and it's so worth it! Here'sa link to one of my favs:

2. Replace the gazebo. Sadly, the winter was not good to our canopy...and yes, we should have taken it down, but alas it has been torn and the frame is a bit damaged. We haven't been able to find one we like just yet, but we're on the lookout for a nice one, possibly a bit larger than the last one.

3. Plant an herb garden. In the past few months I have been learning to cook with fresh herbs (who knew it actually makes a difference...) and so this has become a must-have for us. Placement is a concern, I don't want it to get lost in with the other plants. But it's on the agenda to find the perfect place for this. I found a great herb garden plan as well.

4. Consider a hedge as a new fence option. Billy REALLY wants a new fence. And yes, I do too, but with the size of our backyard it would be a financial/labour nightmare. So, I'm trying to talk him into considering a more natural option, and using evergreen trees/shrubs as an option. This too will be pricey, but it could look SO beautiful. Here's what I'm imagining:

5. Make our grass really, really green. There are tons of lawn care tips online, but we're going with the overseed and fertilize plan. Luckily, before all of this rain started I put an entire bag of seed on our lawn, so I'm hoping in a week or two we'll see some little sprouts!

6. Add more grass. As most of you will remember, to the left of the gazebo there was a huge area of raspberry bushes. These drive us crazy, and don't really produce raspberries anyway. So the plan is to rip them all out (leaving all of the trees in that area) and replace it with sod. We have to do the same thing on the far left side of the house as well, which currently is a lovely combination of old mulch and weeds.

It's going to be a busy summer for us! But spending time outside seems like the perfect way to enjoy the good weather anyway. Just don't make fun of me too much if I end up buying one of those old lady sun hats.

More fall pictures

I am aware that no one else is nearly as fascinated by trees in the fall as I am. But, oh well, I m perfectly ok with overdoing it.

For a while now I've wondered how our tree would turn. Every day it seems to get better and better.

A garden post

I have to admit, it's been a long, long time since I had any interest in gardening. The first summer that I lived in our old house I went crazy, learned all about perennials versus annuals, bought loads of plants.

And then my neighbour hit me in the head with an empty beer can (not really true, but it might as well have happened) and I realized that you have to love your outdoor space to actually enjoy it.

So, years later, we find ourselves with a backyard we love. And so, the garden books have been dusted off.

Here are a few overall shots of our lovely garden as it is currently:

Over time I will change things, but there are some really pretty flowers at the moment. Here are just a few favourites:

One of the best parts about the garden is that most of it is shaded, which means I can finaly have my hosta garden. There are already quite a few here: