It’s wet outside, but that doesn’t mean you can’t read about
garden question-and-answers. Remember, you can e-mail me questions
at ga*******@*ps.net. Or you can mail garden questions in care of
this newspaper. For a faster, personal response, please include a
self-addressed, stamped envelope.
It’s wet outside, but that doesn’t mean you can’t read about garden question-and-answers. Remember, you can e-mail me questions at ga*******@*ps.net. Or you can mail garden questions in care of this newspaper. For a faster, personal response, please include a self-addressed, stamped envelope.
Q. My garden is brown and ugly, and I want to add some color. Is it too early to start planting summer bedding plants? A local garden store already has blooming impatiens on sale. I was tempted to buy a flat, but I held off. Is it safe to plant summer annuals like impatiens?
– P.W., Morgan Hill.
A: What a great question! I was in the same dilemma myself just the other day and decided to hold off on planting for at least a couple more weeks. We are in that in-between season – in-between winter and spring. It probably is safe to plant impatiens, marigolds, petunias and other summer bedding plants. But that’s a big probably. If we happen to get another cold spell, those summer flowers would be damaged and possibly could even die. That’s why veteran home gardeners haven’t yet planted tomatoes, squash or other summer vegetables.
I would recommend planting a few winter bedding plants like pansies, violas, snapdragons, primroses and Iceland poppies to rid yourself of that brown garden. They will bloom well into June. There’s plenty of time for the summer bedding plants. You can always intersperse the summer stuff with the winter flowers in a few weeks.
Q: My yard gets full sun for three to four hours a day. I would like something to go along the fence or at the entrance so maybe it would cheer up our yard. I have children who play in the yard, so I don’t want plants that I will cry over if they get trampled. I just don’t know what to get.
– A.J., Gilroy – via e-mail.
A: If your yard only gets three to four hours of sunlight a day, your selection of plants will be a bit limited. Sun-loving plants require at least six hours of direct sunlight a day. If I were you, I’d take a garden hose and use it to mark out possible garden beds along your fence line, near your steps, around trees, etc., and see what looks best.
When you determine the size and shape of your future garden, you’ll need to dig the area and add organic compost, peat moss, rotted manure and any other soil supplements. Shade-loving perennials include fuchsia, camellia, azalea, hosta, bleeding heart, ajuga, vinca and lily of the valley. Shade-loving annuals include impatiens, pansy, viola and wax begonia. Check out the covered shade areas at local nurseries for more possible specimens. For the most part, if they’re stored under shade at nurseries, they need shade in your garden.
