"Riddles" wrote in message
om...
Hi, I am new to the list and curious to get some opinions about the
kinds of perennials to plant this upcoming growing season.

First thing Riddles is, identify your location. It would be much more
helpful to us to assist you if you at least tell us the city and state where
you are. We will determine the zone and such. Opinions are fine from all of
us but we can't help you much if we don't know where you are! g

My bed in question runs the southern and western perimeter of the
house, which is approximately 80' and 42' long.

that gives you roughly 3360 cubic feet to plant in. Quite a bit actually,
but it's way too skinny..........two foot wide is just too narrow.

The bed extends 2'from the wall with full sun on the south and part-sun on
the west.

If it's two foot wide total from the outer edge to the wall of the house,
you have to compensate for the drip line of the roof's sophit. Way too dry
for most things and you don't want to plant right up against the house
anyway. Southern and western exposure will be good for all the sun and heat
lovers, but you have to allow space between the house and the bed.

The bed is irrigated with a buried drip line, which is on an
electronic irrigation system. The bed cannot widened due to the
location of the sprinkler heads for the lawn.

It will HAVE to be widened, as two foot is just not wide enough to allow
full growth to a lot of perennials. Most perennials except for the dwarf
varieties, girth out over two foot sometimes. I realize the sprinkler heads
for the lawn are out there, but you can widen the bed in curves around the
sprinkler heads. A good width is perfect at four feet because that allows
easy reach on either side by the length of one's arms comfortably. And you
have to allow a foot between the back of the bed and your house. Even I who
has planted the whole front southern and western sliver of yard has a buffer
space between the raised bed and the house defined by a sidewalk that I
refer to as the dog run.

First I would define a foot out away from the house along the back and
partition it off. That will give you back access to the bed in the future.
Then once you do that and curve and widen the whole bed around the sprinkler
heads, you can lay out at least three foot width of bed. And you don't have
to dig this up just because the bed is on a drip line with the system. You
can do a raised bed. The sprinkler heads will just water the bed as well as
the lawn. A drip line is easy to lift and move, but even if you're unwilling
to do that you don't have to, you just raise the bed. All my beds are
raised up. And I've extended beds off those raised beds.

Last year was our first year in the new house, so I kept it very
simple by planting pale yellow petunias that complimented the color of
the siding and the brick. Now that the lawn is in, I want to be able
to devote more time (and color!!) to my largest bed.

I would suggest you look into dwarf and small perennials in the narrow space
if you are looking for color. Baby Cole gaillardia is small and never gets
more than a foot wide and will reseed daughters later on. There are a lot of
annuals that stay a nice size. Petunia's were good because they live in the
space they are planted and don't take up a lot of space unless it's wave
petunia's.

The first rule is to access what you have and unless you really are willing
to widen and raise the bed to allow for mature perennials, you should stick
to the wide assortment of annuals which will provide you with lots of color
for three seasons. Small spirea's will fit in that tight space, and I'm
sure there are LOTS of people out there in the newsgroup that do compact
gardening and can help you further. I plant alot of things in containers
and have discovered there is a huge diversity of perennials that don't mind
bound up roots. You can also put a LOT of bulbs in that two foot space that
like sun.


I hope this gives you an idea at least.
madgardener up on the ridge, back in Fairy Holler, overlooking English
Mountain in Eastern Tennessee zone 7, Sunset zone 36