Nine years ago we decided to fix up an old house with a large overgrown yard in a historic town 90 miles from our home. The one acre yard was overgrown with trees and brush and we concentrated on that for several years. The biggest problem was Euonymus fortunei which had grown up into many trees and even killed some of them. I grow a lot of flowers where I live but every time I planted flowers in the new location they met with catastrophe. The person mowing the grass often thought they were weeds. The front yard had a chain link fence with 2 1/2 feet of space between it and the sidewalk. I tried mulching the space but it still grew lots of crab grass and the moles loved the space and continuously dug it up. A year ago this spring I decided I was going to plant flowers there because I wanted to hide the fence and no one ever went in that space with tools. I had a large patch of Monarda Jacob Cline so I took starts about the size of my hand and put it every 10 ft. The space is 150 ft long. I bought Liatris bulbs, Echinacea and Asclipsia tuberosa bare roots at Wal-Mart and planted them every 10 feet also. I have a lot of garden phlox seedlings and I transplanted them and several plants that are somewhat invasive into the space. I often buy packets of seed for anything that strikes my fancy and I took all the seeds I had accumulated and sprinkled them in the space. I wanted to attract pollinators. I sprinkled breaded poppy seeds that grew and coriander seed that flowered and attracted a lot of pollinators. I planted Oenothrra speciosa seeds all along the front of the space and they grew and filled in any empty space and bloomed all summer. I transplanted cleome seedlings about every 10 feet as well as annual milkweed seedlings. When the nurseries closed out their summer annuals I bought a lot of things that did well such as ageratum, melampodium and salvia. It was colorful all summer. Last fall I planted daffodils, tulips, crocus and alliums. Only a few of the tulips bloomed which I blamed on the moles. I had transplanted larkspur seedlings that bloomed and I left them to provide seed for this year. I planted Adenophera and Campanula as well as Conoclinium coelestinum from my garden. I transplanted Sweet Rocket last fall and they provided some early flowers this spring. This spring I planted gladiolus bulbs and some dahlias against the fence but everything has grown so much more than I had anticipated that the glads are starting to bloom but they are in back of other taller flowers and are not noticable. If I have flowers that fall over I can tie them up to the fence which works well. There are so many flowers that I don't have many weeds. This spring because of Covid 19 we have only been up there a few times. My daughter lives in the town and she checks on it for me. When I go up I remove plants that are finished blooming and cut everything back that encroached on the sidewalk. I can be ruthless. This spring I decided to plant sunflowers behind The fence to expand the border. They are growing like weeds and should bloom soon. The planting has exceeded all of my expectations.

what a nice variety of plants you have! looks great. I too like to grow a variety of blooming plants so that there will be something blooming year round.

I commend you on your garden. Wow! You are an inspiration. I'm curious as to whether you are digging up your dahlias and glads? I'm also in Missouri Zone 6A and have avoided planting items that require planting and digging up each year as I just do not have the ambition for those types of plants. Once again, thank you for posting and I was able to get some good ideas for a future berm that I'm planting.

I did not dig up the glads and dahlias. I had planned to dig up the dahlias but it didn't get done. They were both a disappointment. There were so many other flowers that they got lost in them. I don't plan to plant them again. I am going to fill in any bare spots with some other perennials. I have some Shasta daisies to add, eryngium, Rudbeckia and garden phlox.

There is a good chance the glads will come back, mine did for several years. If they did poorly they probably did not get enough fertilizer (dahlias grow fast and big so they need alot of nutrients) or they were crowded. It is a pain to dig though every fall and store them and that is why I never messed w them personally. But maybe some time I will plant some just to say I did it.

How did the poppies do that you planted by seed? I scattered some seeds here a month ago, (Springfield MO) and in the past I have never had luck with them. I got my seeds this year from Bakers Creek.

The bread seed poppies grew and flowered. They were a double pink. I cut down the stalks and didn't let them go to seed because I thought the dry stalks detracted from the plants the first year. I also had some California poppies the first year that were nice and their foliage stayed nice looking longer. The second year I didn't plant any poppies and the bed is so full of plants now that I don't think seedling poppies could compete.

More pictures please....
I wish we were neighbors, because I'd help you dig and shove all your leftovers in my pockets!

My garden this year has grown well because we have had a cool wet season. I planted a few new perennials early but discovered that there were so many plants already that they were lost in the jungle. We have not spent very much time there this year. I go up every few weeks and prune plants that have finished blooming and tie up plants falling out onto the sidewalk. I planted sunflowers again but they did not sprout as I had hoped because of the cool wet weather. I replanted them but still don't have as many as I hoped. I lot of cars slow down to look as they drive by so that is rewarding for me. Here are pictures from now and a few weeks ago.

you've made excellent use of an otherwise neglected space. it's no wonder people slow down to take a look at such a colorful happy strip of flowers. more gardeners should be inspired to do the same. I've been mulling over planting my own curb area. 2 people on my street have claimed the park strip as extra planting area. one guy planted grasses, blackeyed susans and knock-out roses. the other lady did herbs and coneflowers. my area could be for cosmos and dahlias and lots of smiles. thank you, Sammy for the encouragement!