So I got some plants and I'm going lay some cardboard down and plant them through the cardboard, then put new soil and whatnot over the box.
I just wanted to know if the plants are far enough apart? They are all around 2 1/2 feet apart and they are numbered to show what they are in the second picture. The third picture I about where they were, and I wanted to know if that's a good spot and if they could go down lower? I wasn't sure if that would be too steep.
by cdrw1987
7 Comments
Ohio
Your plan is likely to cause problems. Planting through the cardboard means a place for the lawn and weed to grow through. You kill it first then plant— planting too early always causes problems. You don’t need to add soil pretty much ever. Think about where the plants you are planting ARE— it’s a little bit of root in a little area. New soil won’t feed them— it will be every weeds’ delight tho
To be blunt I’d pull every one of these out if they came with my house. They’re all cultivars, and some kinda “extreme.”
Spacing wise though, in almost all cases I plant a foot apart. Five plants is not very much and so doesn’t need much space. Flats of plugs contain 38 or 50 plants and can fill.
Honestly what I do is just plant them where I want and see what happens, don’t overthink it for 5 small plants. If you’re concerned about spacing, look up each plant and check what the recommended spacing is
Your plan is likely to cause problems. Planting through the cardboard means a place for the lawn and weed to grow through. You kill it first then plant— planting too early always causes problems. You don’t need to add soil pretty much ever. Think about where the plants you are planting ARE— it’s a little bit of root in a little area. New soil won’t feed them— it will be every weeds’ delight tho
To be blunt I’d pull every one of these out if they came with my house. They’re all cultivars, and some kinda “extreme.”
Spacing wise though, in almost all cases I plant a foot apart. Five plants isn’t much— keep it tight and build out as you go. Flats of plugs contain 38 or 50 plants and can
You have a LOT of space here— consider killing more lawn now. Smaller islands of plants are harder to protect from lawn growing in
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They look very far apart and randomly spaced.
You need to remove the grass, not just plant through cardboard. Put the cardboard down as mulch, if you want, after removing the grass. Otherwise grass and weeds will just grow through the cardboard.
Make an interesting shaped bed with plants of varying heights, tall plants behind shorter plants. I personally would maybe 1-1.5 feet between plants.
Some of what you have, such as beebalm, will spread if happy. Others, such as coneflower will stay in one place.
Gardening is a lot about experimenting. If you aren’t happy with the arrangement this year you can dig everything up next spring and rearrange.
Be sure to use an organic mulch, like shredded cedar, around the plants once they are planted.
All of these plants need full sun. Water daily for the first month or so.
Gumball spreads.
Don’t water these perennials foliage with turf heads. You could cause fungus on bee balm, beardstongue, coneflower, Asclepias…. Pardon the mixed use of nomenclature.
I like your spacing allowing for airflow.
I’ve done the cardboard thing before.
My soil is so hard packed I can barely dig a hole to plant anything in, so I mow low, top with 3 inches of compost/soil, later of cardboard, and 3 inches of mulch.
I’ve actually stopped using the cardboard because I got basically the same results using just soil and mulch.
Idk about placements, but as others have said, these are nativars. Nativars can look cool (and are easier to find) but don’t offer the same level of ecological benefits. Straight natives are the ideal. They won’t have a flowery-sounding name in quotations, just the scientific name (and maybe common name).