Hi everyone! I am very new to gardening and landscaping and I want to treat my elderly mother to a new front bed. I believe the bed is 10ft X 12ft. She lives in Queens and I believe her zone is 7 but not sure if it's A or B. My great grandma planted a holly bush that is now a huge tree and I believe the ground cover is vinca. She has a huge hole almost dead center of the bed as well. I was thinking of maybe just using planters for right now? There is a ton of clay in the soil that we could never get rid of. I was thinking some tall ornamental grasses, a flowering bush (she has 2 huge hydrangeas in the backyard so maybe something else) and then maybe a few hostas? Any tips and recommendations are appreciated. I have no idea where to start!
by Crow_Whisperer
6 Comments
First you have to remove the invasive vinca
Inkberry where the hosta is for evergreen put the hostas under/ around the tree and put native perennial flowers like purple coneflower, black eyed Susan’s, foerster feather grass and strawberries for a ground cover this is assuming that spot gets at least 6 hours of sun
Ditch the ornamental grasses idea right now. Grasses want full sun and good drainage but you have heavy shade from that mature holly and dense clay soil. Put a grass in there and it will rot and look like a wet mop. Do not fight the clay by trying to dig it all out. Break up that bare patch, lay down three inches of good leaf compost right on top, and let the soil biology pull the nutrients down into the earth.
Right now you have a canopy layer with the holly and a groundcover layer with that dense mat of vinca but you are missing the middle structure. That is why the bed looks flat and empty. Hack back a big sweeping section of that vinca to make room. It is tough stuff and will survive. Plant a mass of shade tolerant shrubs like Oakleaf Hydrangea for your middle layer. Then take your hostas and plant them in one large connected drift wrapping around the shrubs. Do not just scatter them like polka dots. Sweeping masses create visual calm.
Before you go out and spend a fortune on planters or plants that might hate the shade, run a picture of this bed through the GardenDream web app. It is a solid safety net that lets you overlay different layouts and plants right over your existing yard. It will show you exactly how a mass of hostas and a structural shrub will look under that holly before you break your back digging in Queens clay.
I would do ferns, Columbine and bleeding heart against the stairs in the corner, maybe coneflower or milkweed in the middle, then Pussytoes and phlox near the front where it is dry. Phlox loves to climb over rocks, if you want to add height.
There are some fun natives you can put in pots for the stairs – I think blanket flower would look nice tumbling down the side.
i’d keep the holly since it has family history, and i’d leave the vinca unless you’re planning to redo the entire bed. the biggest thing i’d tackle first is figuring out why there’s a hole in the middle before planting anything there.
since it’s your first project, i’d avoid trying to fill the whole bed at once. i’d do a few larger plants that will grow in over time instead of lots of little ones.
something like 1 flowering shrub (spirea, weigela, or dwarf oakleaf hydrangea if you want something different, 3-5 hostas if that area gets shade from the holly a few clumps of japanese forest grass or hakone grass if it’s shady, or feather reed grass if it gets more sun mulch everything to tie it together
don’t worry too much about the clay. lots of plants do just fine in clay as long as the area drains reasonably well. instead of replacing all the soil, just amend each planting hole with compost.
if it were me, i’d skip planters unless they’re temporary. putting that money toward a few quality perennials and shrubs will give your mom something that comes back every year and fills in nicely over time. it’s a really sweet project.
After removing the vinca, dig up or I should say down and remove some clay. If there is a place in the back yard that gets filtered light, dump the clay back there and then go moss hunting. Moss loves clay soil. You can even make moguls out of the clay and just let the moss have at it. For the front bed, plant shrubs in odd numbers: 1, 3, 5. Ornamental grasses can overwhelm the small space. Blue fescues are a nice accent, won’t overpower the bed. I would look for one focal shrub with a few accents. Aim for a shrub that requires minimal pruning, an evergreen so there is green in the winter. Hellebores are low, the first to flower (late winter), can be divided after an about 3 years. Whatever you choose most plant tags give a mature size. Those tags are usually wrong, at least in my case the plants end up considerably larger. Might be wise to do the focal plant first in the early fall and wait til next spring to plant the rest.