I'm fairly new here...I lurk a lot. Anyhow, I have some questions about
my garden area that I hope you can help me with. The garden folks at
Lowes/Home Depot were not of much help.

Location:
I live in N. Virginia. Two small plots of land behind my apt. building.
Approx. 2' X 3'6". They are right up against a brick wall. Receive
direct afternoon sun and whatever "early evening" sun is available.

Soil:
Have no idea but last year, I put one bag of Miracle Grow planting soil
on each plot and never had to fertilize again. Just water. I grew
impatients. They looked great. Had to water a lot due to the heat we
had, but they looked great.

Past Plants:
Impatients, which Home Depot (or their gardening contractors) said would
do fine. I've since been told that they are more shade tolerant. They
did fine where they were. They had the shadow of the building until
around noon.

I plan to plant impatients again in one of the plots. The other plot and
a med. size pot, I'm not sure. I want bright colors with lots of blooms.
I'm a novice and am rather impatiant and want the "instant impact" of
color right away, so seedlings might not be the best for me. In the pot,
I'd like one type of flower. Big blooms or at least if they are small,
lots of them. I really want a lot of color. In the plot, I'd like to
have some taller flowers in the back and gradually come down in height
as you come forward. I'm not sure if I want to get into staking
flowers. The plot will have a concrete sidewalk on 3 sides and a brick
wall on the other. Not a lot of heavy traffic. Again, I'm a novice and
want some color right away.

I really don't like geraniums. I thought about sprinkling wildflower
seeds and letting them go, but I don't know how long germination takes
and if I'd get the dense color i'm looking for. Any suggestions as to
some friendly, easy to grow flowers? Oh, and when is too early to start
planting?

Thanks
Darby