Hi, I'd like to plant some flowers in my mothers garden. I'd like to
plant 8 square meters of bright flowering plants, ina 3x3
arrangement, witha 1x1 hole in the middle, or ina line, I've yet to
decide. Anyway, I'd like to plant 8 different colours of flowers,
preferably of the same type, but looking similar will be fine too. I
don't know what flowers to plant however, perhaps you could advise me
some points to consider:


- I want them to be flowering for as long as possible, and not look
trashy when they aren't

- They wil be in full sun

- The yard has clayey soil

- The yard has some very laerge trees with an extremely prominant root
structure all over the garden

- I can plant these flowers in a raised bed

- I can dig up to 1 meter throught the roots and clay, fill it in with
different soil, then plant

-I can only spend 2-300 dollars

- I live in sydney, in the north shore, in st ives (for climate)

Thanks in advance

In article ,
Arpit wrote:

Hi, I'd like to plant some flowers in my mothers garden. I'd like to
plant 8 square meters of bright flowering plants, in a 3x3
arrangement, witha 1x1 hole in the middle,

I would not try this configuration -- for one thing, it sounds like a Council
flowerbed and secondly, the lawn in the middle will just crawl all over your
flowers. (I assume you would retain lawn in the hole?)

or ina line, I've yet to decide. Anyway, I'd like to plant 8 different
colours of flowers,preferably of the same type,

Um, why 8? And why all the same type?

I suppose you might be thinking of something quirky, like 1 sq m plot each in
a rainbow design, so you would have 1 block each of

Red Orange Yellow Green Blue Purple (and some other colours?)

sitting next to each other. I still think you would end up with the Council
Flowerbed Look!

snip

- The yard has some very laerge trees with an extremely prominant root
structure all over the garden
- I can plant these flowers in a raised bed
- I can dig up to 1 meter throught the roots and clay, fill it in with
different soil, then plant

No you can't. Here are the reasons:

* light soil in the middle of clayey soil turns into a sump when it rains and
drowns all your plants (you can guess how I found this one out!)
* cutting through the roots of mature trees can cause the trees to become
sick or die -- or if they are liquidambars, to sucker (sprout little trees)
everywhere
* cutting the roots can affect the stability of the trees.

The raised bed is a much better way to go (and much easier on the back).

-I can only spend 2-300 dollars
- I live in sydney, in the north shore, in st ives (for climate)

I can't suggest any plants to you, but would suggest that you might want to
leave this till autumn, for two reasons:

1. To do more research on what would grow and what Mum would like. For
example, go for a walk around the area and look at the kinds of plants that do
well, and what kinds of gardens your Mum likes. Perhaps she would prefer a
fern garden, say.

2. We have water restrictions this summer, so it's not an ideal time to try
to settle in new plants, particularly annuals (and it sounds like you are
thinking of annuals -- pansies, snapdragons etc). Annuals tend to be
high-maintenance.

--
Chookie -- Sydney, Australia
(Replace "foulspambegone" with "optushome" to reply)

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