Hello All,

Let me preface this post by saying if I am in the wrong area I am sorry and please move.

My name is Dylan and I purchased my first home in Feb last year and did not do much more than mulch. This year I started in my yard last weekend and FELL IN LOVE with working in the yard. I plan on transforming my yard over the coming years. Help me along this journey as I am learning as I go.

Here are some pictures taken today with detail of where the space is and what has been done. I encourege any comments, questions, suggestions, concerns, and jokes.

House from street. I will aerate and reseed this fall so any grass suggestions?


Two trees in my front right with established beds, however they were filled with weeds. To save length only picturing front one that i just moved weeds and plan on spraying with vinegar, salt, soap covering with newspaper, and mulch. I have already done that to the back one.


Looking at house from between two trees in front yard. There is a bed that wraps around the entire front porch / walkway. This is looking at the portion on side of the house that is basically weeds.


Closer look.


Start of front bed I am like 99% sure those are Hydrengas that where there when I moved in. They where so large and overgrown I cut them all the way back (before I knew). That was 6 months ago.


Keep on moving down the bed I have a section that I have weeded. I am thinking about planting a few things there that are sitting in the pots Verbena, Yarrow, and Gayfeather.


This is looking down the walkway to my caving in driveway. On the right is a pretty rocky / weedy bed that has some established Azaleas that are beautiful. On the left this past weekend I planted everything but the Irises by the light pole. My soil is pretty clay heavy so I dug out the ENTIRE front bed about two feet deep. I replaced it with a mix of all the good top soil that was there, organic compost, and store bought top soil. Tamped it down and then planted Salvia and Daanthus.


This is another angle front the front so you can see the nice layering of heights affect I was going from Dianthus, salvia, walkway, azealea.


If you look left from my driveway (otherside of the walkway from above photo) I have some kind of ivy and a white azalea.


Looking right of there or two the left if looking head on at the house by the light pole. Its all weeds that I am thinking about giving them the old paper/ mulch treatment.


I plan on mulching front tree bed, and by azaleas.

I appreciate any feedback I am excited to keep sharing my progress.

Hi Dylan! Welcome to NGA!

You're in the right place and from what I see you already have a wonderful start! You're not in a race so go slow but remember, anything you do is not set in stone .. if something doesn't work you can always change your mind and dig it up.

Here a just a couple of points to ponder. Being in zone 7 you'll need to get perennials plants will survive your winters and what won't. Second, watch the sun. You'll also want to make note of where your beautiful home gets sun and shade and for how long. Some plants like roses require at least 6 hours of full sun a day to really thrive. Others only like shade and others like morning sun and afternoon shade.

Here is a link to the Landscape design forum. You can go through that and see what other people have done.

https://garden.org/forums/view...

Here is another link for the Mid Atlantic Gardening Forum which you might find interesting.

https://garden.org/forums/view...

Looks like a fun project. I have lived my house for 4 years now and the plan has only changed once.

But vinegar, salt and soap? Do you ever want anything to grow in that space?

Hi Dylan, you come here looking for answers, and I have a question for you -- I'm trying to work with the property at a new home myself. I'm curious about the vinegar, soap salt, newspaper. mulch thing. How does that work? I have an area that runs partially along my driveway and leads into a sort of circular area up by my walkway. Former owners put black weed fabric down, apparently, because it's all bunched up, and the maple tree seedlings are rampant and coming through the mulch. There are lovely hosta there, that I was figuring on digging up and transplanting, and then I thought I would put more fabric down to suppress the weeds, cover it all with mulch, and then do container plantings on top. Would what you used around your trees be a better idea than the fabric cover? Has to be cheaper and easier to work with. And as Daisyl asked, will that process really stop anything from growing there, sounds too good to be true -- are you thinking of putting rocks or pea shingle or something around your trees?

Regarding the mulch around the trees; you need to pull that mulch back about 6" away from the trunks, or you are inviting rot. Sounds like you are trying to stay organic, but I would suggest Round-Up for the weeds, and when dead, Preen to prevent new ones...following manufacture's instructions. I can't recommend plants as I'm in zone 10, but I applaud your enthusiasm.

Hi Dylan!
Have you thought of pouring plain boiling water to remove weeds and using cardboard instead of newspaper? The vinegar sold in stores is not the correct strength to kill weeds and salt basically kills the earth. With cardboard you want brown with minimal black printing. Usually school cafeteria's get large boxes like that. Cardboard holds the weeds back better. Couple it with landscape fabric and mulch. If you want to plant in the area, after a week or two, push the mulch aside, take a razor and cut out circles larger than your plant. After planting adjust the mulch. Containers on top work, too. Once your salvias are happy and have growth, take cuttings and make more. They are free. Then you can either trade them for other plants or use them temporarily in other spots until you can afford different plants.Take a picture of your iris when it blooms and trade a rhizome to someone in the neighborhood. When I pass a pretty iris, I make a note and after bloom season ask if they would like to trade. I have never met a gardener offended over a trade. When I was just starting out, gardeners would load me up and not even want my trade. Great way to meet nice people. May you and your garden be blessed with much success!

Hi Sharon Rose, I never thought of cardboard, and I just recycled a lot of boxes too , but anyhoo, do you think that boiling water, cardboard, mulch and then planters on top would work without the fabric?

Abbey-- Depends on the type or grass or weeds. Bermuda or nutsedge are tough. But you can put down cardboard and mulch, if it works great. Cardboard buckles, the fabric and mulch make it stay flat. Without fabric you may need to make the mulch deeper. I say try it, then if you are still getting growth, put more cardboard down, then fabric, then mulch. The first layer will eventually dissolve. I have some areas where the next year I had to put another layer of everything down. That corrected all problems. Another note just do not let the boiling water get near any good plants. Many blessings for your success!

Hi and welcome, Dylan. Wow, what a lovely house and a great project you've taken on.

May I ask what the orientation of the house is? Your first picture shows the light at a low angle, so I'm thinking it was taken either in early morning or late afternoon, which might mean the house faces roughly east/west?

We need to know which side faces south, though. You need different plants for the south side of the house than for the north side, as it will be much warmer and sunnier on the south side, colder and mostly shade (esp. in spring and fall) on the north side. So you need hardier plants that thrive in the shade for the north side.

The bed you've done with the dianthus and salvia looks just lovely. But is it going to get enough sunlight for those plants to really do their best? In your pictures the bed is shaded by the house.

Do you have an irrigation system in place? Different areas of the yard will need different amounts of water, and that is further modified by the kind of plants you put in. A new flower bed needs to be watered every morning, but your lawn doesn't need that much, for example. If there isn't a system in place, I'd advise you take a look at micro-irrigation. Starting kits and all the supplies are available at the big box stores and it's easy and fun to put in. The real beauty of it though is that it is infinitely flexible - each sprinkler can be turned off and on, adjusted to put water exactly where it's needed. It's the most water-efficient way to irrigate a garden.

Are you wanting to have all that much lawn? Grass is really pretty hard to grow in shady areas so often it's a good idea to plant flower beds and shrubs or clumps of part shade loving perennials in the shade of your trees, instead of struggling and growing really ratty looking grass. You can leave grass as pathways, and have mostly shrubs, flowers and trees if you want to reduce your mowing chore. (plant more Azaleas, they love it in the shade of your trees!) Down here in Florida we believe that grass is the most expensive, labor intensive, water and fertilizer hungry groundcover you can grow. Everything you have to do for a perfect lawn is costly and bad for the environment. So homeowners are encouraged to plant almost anything but grass.

Thank you all for the encourgement. As for the sun I actually did some measuring so I can tell you. My front of the house gets morning sun but is partially shaded by the magnolia tree. Then around 10-11 the suns gets over it and they keep getting sun till about 3. In front of my house further right (looking at the house where the verbena pots are) has shade starting sooner closer to 1. Obviously under both trees is partial shade. The sides of my house actually gets the most sun.

Working with the vinegar worked to kill indivisul weeds. For big beds of it I found it did not do too much to kill their roots. I also should have probably sprayed them sooner while smaller vs when I did they were full grown.

I dot not plan on putting anything under the trees this year so the soil should have some time to mature.

No one has any suggestions. Also maybe this helps I am looking for some perennials that do well in clay 5-7 hours of sun a day.

Thank you

Iris, daylilies, echinacea, rudbeckia, shasta daisies, chrysanthemums. Those are the "standards" to start out with.

Each of those will increase into nice big lush clumps in a few years, and you can divide the ones you really love and spread them around.

For your shady or partial shade areas, heuchera, bleeding heart, and in the real shade you can grow wonderful hostas.

Shrubs, as I said, I'd go for more azaleas as you already know they do well. The other one we've planted in my daughter's garden in Utah (maybe a zone colder than you but also clay soil and about the same latitude) we've had great success with sambucas. The "Black Lace" one is really gorgeous.

Hi!

I suppose it's time for my two cents... what everyone is saying about the weed killing is correct. Everything you are using now to kill them will also kill anything else you are trying to grow. You are really better off soaking with water and either pulling them by hand or get a hoe. Things will grow if you do that. The salt and vinegar is going to kill everything you try to grow there and then you'll end up amending the soil so something will grow. A lot of work for nothing. ;)

The Salvia and dianthus need at least 6 hours of full sun to do well. What we see in the pics as far as shade and sun, the plants will grow slowly and probably end up leggy and not near as tall as they should be. If it's a matter of the end of the day when you took the pic, they may do fine there. The amount of sun each area gets daily is what we need to know to help and guide you.

Since I really don't know these things, I'll help in another sort of way. Zinnias, they are quick to grow, they come in all colors and sizes, they need full sun, and watered at least once a week depending on your heat factors. Coneflower, dianthus, Salvia, pentas, floss flower, butterfly bush, strawflower, sunflower, geraniums, petunias and celosias all need these conditions to grow well. They all do well in zone 7.

For partial shade plants on the north side of your house, hydrangea, hostas, lily of the valley, jacob's ladder, astilbe, begonias, lobelia are just a few that will work well. Some people can get their snapdragons to grow in shade or part shade. Mine prefer full sun. Try it, for you it may work, if not, you now know to move it to full sun. :)

Rose's, yarrow, allium, catnip, catmint, celosia will all survive clay soil. It's what I grow in mine. I do work on amending my soil there but all of these plants do so well in Clay, no reason for me to find something else.

You will plant then move more times than you can count before it's all said and done. All I can say is welcome to gardening, you are not alone. We are all in it with you. Just because the nursery says full sun does not always mean it will work out that way. We all do adjustments for our plants.

I don't know why you want to switch grasses, but don't go with Bermuda if you are planning on a lot of garden. The main reason people seed Bermuda is because it fills in quickly. Do you really want it taking over your gardens you worked so hard on?

I suppose the last piece of advice I can give is pay attention to what is already planted. Someone planted a hydrangea in your yard, that spot is going to need other shade plants as well. The azaleas, another shade, partial shade plant, again, it will need other shade loving plants. What is already planted and doing well will be your guide to what type of plants should be companions. Let us know how it's going.

Karen thank you for all your advice.

Here is some more detail to help you (sorry about the sub par artistry but I think you get the idea.)


-The big black box is the house
-Small black box in front is covered porch
-Smaller black on left is chimney
-Maroon is the brick path to driveway
-Purple on either side are the flower beds - These get sun from morning till 3 - (picture I show is around 5)
-Light green are beds that get partial shade
- Front green box gets more sun that rest of green places - It gets good sun from 8-1
-The front of my house faces East and the side where the chimney is will be south

Thank you Karen. As I said way back up there, DO NOT put vinegar and salt on your soil if you ever want to grow another plant there. Maybe I wasn't clear about that.

I wouldn't waste my money on the weed guard either. In a couple years, you will be trying to figure out how to get it. The weeds, while small, can grow through the weed guard holes but, when you go to pull the weed, the roots don't fit.

If you were thinking about the geo-cloth that is solid, you will end up with sour soil and unhappy plants.

Don't worry about the mulch and underlying dirt getting mixed together. The Mulch is going to be dirt in a year or two anyway.

Hi 😁
Hears my three cents worth. 😃
Azaleas ! There are sun azaleas. And there are shade azaleas. Get the right type for situation.
Please dont put salt and vinegar on soil. Empson salt is good for some plants. But, regular salt kills soil.
The little bit of vinegar you spray to kill weeds, doesn't hurt !😕??? Well ! Except the weeds.
Weed, newspaper, then mulch is all you needed.
White vinegar 5% acidity. Good contact weed killer for small weeds, some tougher, bigger weeds may need 2 or more sprayings. If you need roots killed, round-up. I use a piece of cardboard as a shield when i spray weed killer around desirable plants.
If you have evasive grass. I spray a 6 inch border of round up around flowerbeds, two or more times a year, as needed to keep bermuda grass out.
Glad to hear your garden crazed
Now ! When you gonna plant some beans tomatoes and okra ?
Thats my kind of gardening
Gee ??? That was about my nickel or dimes worth.
I'll bill you latter.
😎😎😎

Dylan, a few parameters that will complicate your process, but will, I think ultimately pay off. First, I don't know if you have any pets, but here's the link for the ASPCA's list of poisonous plants: https://www.aspca.org/pet-care...

You may get local landscapers or big box store people, or slightly shady nurseries (nice pun, doncha think??) pushing invasive species like Japanese barberry and burning bush for folks with clay soil. Here's the link for invasive species in Virginia; my department of conservation in NY has been wonderful, can't imagine Virginia would be any different:
http://www.dcr.virginia.gov/na...

I had conditions similar to yours back at my old house, and here at the new one, I am eagerly awaiting delivery of Vanilla Strawberry hydrangeas and a limelight hydrangea -- they are glorious, grow like weeds, make great cut and dried flowers, and you basically just deadhead them in the autumn. I ordered my vanilla strawberry ones from Jung and the limelight from Spring Hill Nurseries. The more common hydrangeas, and that's not being sniffy, those are the ones you see at big box stores and such, for me, didn't produce flowers for years because of spring drought or late frost conditions, but the other kind did.

@Philipwonel Poor guy is looking for advice, and all you can think of is getting a bowl of Okra Bean Stew out of him! What plant grows hot sauce???

I think I am good on weed control now as most of the areas that I am planting this year have been weeded already. Only by the light post and tree beds are full of weeds and I plan on using the paper/mesh/mulch cover technique this year to prep them and only plant next year. I will till the earth and add some compost and other nutrients before I actually plant in those beds next year.

The purple azaleas you see by the house where there when I bought the house. I want to take cutting from them to fill in that area a little more.

Also ALL of my neighbors have beautiful azaleas in all colors so I am going to see if they want to trade.

When it comes to planting / design that's what I am seeking advice on based on the info I provided about soil and sun conditions.

Thanks all

Apparently....
I'm the only person cringing every time I'm reading the word "weeds" in this thread.
Never a mention about what plants specifically that you've been battling.

Makes me wonder how many desirable plants got salted.

I do battle with homeowners to protect the native plants they already have... When they've got their hearts set on planting those nursery containerized plants...

Those plants from the nursery might live.... Or... They might take over the entire neighborhood.

Each time I build a garden in a new location, my best plants are the ones that God planted.... The hardest part.... Is waiting until I've had time to identify everything before planting anything else.

When you spoke about "weeding" around the trees, I was wondering about the shade plants that the previous owner may have planted next to them...

Those island beds actually look small to me.... I'd dig out a lot of grass, and make those tree islands large enough to have a nice woodland garden.... Like 4 or 5 times larger.... Or.... Larger than that.... Like.... 1 big island with both trees in it.... And a third planted into the yard for a triangle.

I took another look at your pics....
If the vegetation by your trash can is a fair example of your weeds....
You can go ahead and kill the vinca and Duchesnea...

One person's weed is another person's desirable plant. The OP or anyone else has the right to plan their garden according to their wishes, their tastes and desires without being subjected to scolding and sanctimony. Of course there are all sorts of things to be considered, which we can point out as a matter of education, not condemnation. That's what people are doing in this thread. I think that's the kind of help the OP had in mind.

How I wish someone would get as worked up about the human beings that other human beings label "weeds."

Hi tether! You are more than welcome for the help. And thanks for the info on sun and the timing. Huge help for us. Your layout is great.

My father's house has azaleas. I'm including a pic of them. They are 20 years old and the original plants. Azaleas love acidic soil. I'm thinking you need to amend the soil and fertilize your azaleas before putting more in as fillers. Whomever had the house and planted these things knew what they were doing looking at the pics. They just got a bit lax in keeping them going. My father's Azaleas are 3x3. They get their fertilizer and mulch at least yearly.



The bed across from the azaleas will be fine with any full sun plants I mentioned in my previous post. It looks to me that that is about your only full sun options due to the trees. If you want more light, cut the tree branches back. Heavily.

Some partial sun plants do better on an East side rather than a north side. You could plant coral bells on your north side. Mine do better in a north bed as opposed to an East side. When making that choice, you would want ps plants that need cooler weather (coral bells) and more moisture than an East side that would benefit snapdragons, lobelia, and zinnias. North beds against a house hold more moisture than an East side. These are things to consider when choosing. West and South beds that get a full 6 hours or more of sun need full sun plants that could be drought tolerant if need be.

Now, for color, size and general purpose, let's figure out what will work for you. What is your favorite color? What type of flowers do you like? Don't know? Lol, just a few suggestions. I love red. Red anything. It's a bold color that makes a statement. You have pinks and purples. Throw some red, orange and/or yellow in there. This year I've decided on lime green, red, orange and purple. Sounds odd but I'll pull it all together just fine. And everything blends with my house color so that they stand out. I don't know if your shutters are burgundy or brown. Either way, any red will tie the house and the azaleas together beautifully. By the way, I actually love what you have to work with color wise with your house. If you want me to break down a few plants for each section, I can do that. Just say, Karen, plan my garden! Lol.