Project Backyard Oasis: Spring Plants for My Big Garden Plan

Spring is here. It feels so good to be outside. I would totally sleep on the patio if the couch was a little longer. (Okay maybe not but I'm LOVING that winter is finally fading.)

The plants I've ordered online have started to arrive. Several of these I've been waiting months for. I wanted to order them before I chickened out. I've included pictures from  where I ordered them from (Park Seed, Burgess and David Austin Roses) because they give you a better idea of what I'm hoping for in a few years than a couple of twigs in the mud.

Climbers

First - a Gold Flame Honeysuckle for the patio pergola. It's pink and should grow 18-20 feet long. It's not supposed to have a million seedlings or try to take over the world, just some berries in the fall for the birds. I never considered honeysuckle for the pergola because it wouldn't provide enough shade, but now that we have the lattice pieces on top for that, it opened up new possibilities. And I have to admit I really love the super sweet smelling white honeysuckle I have on my obelisk.

Since this will take time to get established, I'm planting one Black Eyed Susan Vine next to it this year to fill the trellis in a bit (last year I planted 4 of them, covering more than half the trellis and grew about 8-10 ft and bloomed in the fall).

Second - a Pink Thornless Zephirine Climbing Rose for the arbor that's going over the garden gate. It's supposed to be hardy and disease resistant. And thornless is key being along a pathway where we could snag against it. I wasn't going to get a climber for this spot yet (not until we finished the garden), but this was less than $10 on sale and I couldn't resist it. All I can see in my head is how this will look in 3 years.

Last, but certainly not least, is the one thing I'm most excited about for the garden. It's an early birthday present to myself - a Lady of Shalott Climbing Rose from David Austin Roses. I've wanted one of these for years now and I had a coupon. And I decided it's an early birthday present to myself. I'm a sucker for any flower in sunset colors, and orange roses are my absolute favorite. Even better it's supposed to be great for rose novices like myself. This beauty is going on the side of the garage on a new trellis (which will be installed once the garage is painted). We want to build a short decorative pergola over the front of the garage to make it more attractive (since it's literally the center of our backyard...) and if we're lucky we can train the rose to grow onto it from the trellis. The idea is that this beauty will be seen from the house, deck and patio once it gets established.

I do have to laugh because for almost 10 years I've been the gardener that's afraid of aggressive climbers... and now I've gone from 2 short vines (an 8' purple clematis and a 6-8' honeysuckle added last year) to 5 climbing vines. Hopefully they won't try to take over the yard (except the Lady of Shalott Rose... that one can totally take over).


Perennials

Aaaaaaaaand of course I got a few flowering perennials to continue my garden fill-in project. From super discount online nursery that was having some really great sales, I snagged a 12 pack of creeping phlox, which will be distributed in "front row" spots in the garden beds that need filling in (especially in the front yard, interspersed with balloon flowers) and under trees where I planted phlox and asters last fall (but only 1 of each and it would look so much better if I distributed flowers all the way around the tree to eventually fill in). These arrived small, but they will hopefully fill in over time.

This is a bi-color butterfly bush that is supposed to go from orange to pink to purple. I feel a little guilty about this purchase because this was a total impulse buy. But it was SO PRETTY in the photos (once again I'm a sucker for flowers in sunset colors) and at the time it was on sale for $5. I have a spot for it picked out between the honeysuckle and the forsythia where the raspberries used to be (before they migrated to the other side of the forsythia). It will attract butterflies and hummingbirds along with the honeysuckle and compliment the pergola nicely.

Lastly, a 3-pack of lavender. 1 or 2 of these are intended for the raised bed garden non-rotating herb bed (I KNOW I SHOULDN'T BUY ANYTHING AHEAD OF TIME. But I did. I'm putting it in a pot for now) and 1 is going where the firewitch dianthus was before it was murdered by Morgan Mayhem (as a puppy before I had the fencing up).

All the flowers I started from seed this year will go into the ground or pots in early May. I'm excited to get all of those in the ground soon (lupines, balloon flowers, blanket flowers, black eyed susan vines, globe amaranths, figaro dahlias and bishop's children dahlias). Everything is under my grow light, slowly making progress.

I will also get a few annuals for my flower pots in a few weeks. The things that did best last year were the inexpensive multipack stuff (coleus, snapdragons, petunias, dianthus) and the things that did the worst were the fancy expensive ones (fancy petunias, calibrocha, etc.). So we'll be sticking to the easy plentiful stuff this year.