Monday, April 4, 2011

Topic of the Day 4/4

This weekend, I'm looking forward to starting my landscaping and gardening around the house.  We have a space in front of our deck for a few bushes and lots of flowers and I may put in a vegetable garden in the back next to our garage. 

I helped my parents garden my whole life, but I was so small when we were getting things started that I wanted to start looking into the best steps to take to begin with the planting process. 

First, our Montana soil is basically clay.  Never been gardened or planeted, muddy yucky clay.  So firstly, we have to improve the soil.  The best place to start:
  • work with the soil when it is dry to avoid compacting.
  • place compost on top of the soil, or mix compost into the soil. 
  • lay a layer of compost of bark on top of the soil after plants are planted to keep the soil from crusting on top.
Next, let's evaluate the type of plants that I can have in that area.  We have:
  • Clay Soil
  • No Shade/Full Sun
  • Moderate to Dry Climate 
Here are 10 plants that are best recommended for these conditions, and can still flourish - even without compost mixture:
  1. Aster
  2. Black-Eyed Susan
  3. Coreopsis
  4. Daylily
  5. Ferns
  6. Japanese Iris
  7. Runner Bean
  8. Switch Grass
  9. Potentilla
  10. Viburnum 
All that said, my favorite gardening flower/plant is Lantana, and it would just be the piece de resistance to have that in my garden (or maybe in a pot on the deck).  =)   It flourishes in area of full sun, and is commonly found in FL, but it may require more water then the others.  So in a pot on the deck it is.  =)


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