Struggling For Planting Ideas

[MaxArk68]

I'm not a very creative person, and lack the knowledge to properly select plant material. I hope those here that succeed in their gardening due to their skill and experience can help me.

I am in Ontario Canada, planting zone 5B. I have these beds along the front of my house that I just simple cannot establish any plants in. I have spend hundreds in annuals and perennials over the year, and other than daisies, none have taken. My last endeavour were hostas. They didn't even make it through one summer.

I am looking for a design idea for these beds fronting my house. I am hoping to find something with minimal care. I like texture, organization and complimentary colours. I don't necessarily need blooms, just something that will successfully establish in this area.

The area sees sun mist of the day, with shade creeping out from the house edge after noon. 1-2' from the edge (under thev eaves) stays dry regardless of the intensity of rain events, but manual watering is doable.

 

[Sluggy]

Try wallflowers and / or rosemary plant. Lavender plants.

 

[Martin Mikulcik]

You gotta figure out what your doing wrong before taking the plant cannon to the problem

Do you water your transplants in? When they die are they rooted in the ground or more likely in the same root ball you bought them in?

A picture/description of the soil would help. Is it all mulch, construction sand/gravel, natural silt

They're either dying because of a water issue, either too dry or swampy or the soil is not Ontario dirt

 

[MaxArk68]

Hi, thanks for the reply. Yes, I do water in my transplants with a touch of transplant food, and I break up the root ball material prior to putting into the bed. The soil is native topsoil amended with triple mix into the first 6-8 inches. There is no mulch on the beds along the house frontage.

 

[Martin Mikulcik]

Breaking up the rootball usually doesn't help me, but i doubt that's a serious problem unless you're really rough.

Are weeds growing because it looks sterile and i don't know why?

Eaves can be a little tricky, only getting morning sun, no rainfall, hostas should have been fine if they didn't dry out

You probably have fairly high pH, that would make a difference on some stuff

You might try some ferns or equisetum

Did the plants wilt, go crispy, mold, yellow into oblivion?

Soil looks sandy, is it sandy?

 

[MaxArk68]

Hostas never really grew. What was planted with the half dozen or so leaves turned yellow, edges first and eventually just died out despite watering regularly. Hostas seemed to struggle last summer community wide. I was 't the only one who lost them, or had even established hostas yellow. Shasta daisies i have planted seem to do ok. And thistles!

I would say soil is a sandy loam, lots of organic matter from the triple mix which I feel is made up mostly of leaf mold.

Would grasses, shrubs establish ok in this environment? In addition to texture, I like density also. I have old spirea planted, they look haggard, but they get a lot of winter snow load damage and we're poorly maintained while establishing so pretty thin and spindly.

 

[Sluggy]

Gardening magazines now say not to touch the rootball before planting which is the opposite of what they were saying a few years ago. I actually found that when I dug up my lavender plants, as grass was growing through the root balls, to weed them the roots did not like the surrounding soil so they stayed mangled up in the root ball. So you pay your money and take your chances.

 

[Martin Mikulcik]

If you're not weeding it, there must be something wrong with the soil, i suspect it doesn't hold water and is nutrient poor. You'll find thistles on top of eroded hills. You'll also find them in good cropland so idk

What is triple mix?

At this point i would check pH because it might be really high and after a soil test might be in order. Or throw some miracle gro on it and if that doesn't work then a soil test. But I'd check pH if you can

 

[MaxArk68]

Hi Martin. Oh, I do have to weed these beds! Frequently to control thistle and in one bed colts foot. No struggle for those weeds, but maybe not surprising that they don't get overrun.

Triple mix is a bedding material they sell in bulk for bed building or turf topdressing. 1/3 compost (in our case its leaf mold collected from fall leaf collection, 1/3 peat moss, and 1/3 native topsoil. Its not very dense. I supplement the existing topsoil based beds to provide some organic material and reduce compaction.

Is there a a way to test pH without straps?

 

[Martin Mikulcik]

There are electronic ph meters that work well if you take the time to calibrate them which aren't overly expensive.

Your triple mix is very nitrogen poor and if they're cheaping out and using subsoil instead of topsoil, it could be very poor overall.

A lot of bedding plants come in something like peat which holds a lot of water but has no nutrients and if your soil is the same way, it might not wilt and go crispy but it won't hardly grow.

Do you remember if the plants rooted into the bed or when you pulled them could you see the original rootball?

I think best course of action is sprinkle some fertilizer on the bed and try again

As for plants, they got ornamental mulliens and yarrow which may do well. Junipers, barberry, callicarpa, boxwoods, viburnum, tulips. I still think you could do ferns. More daisy family stuff. Think tough plants that grow on hills because you need drought tolerant poor soil, thriving plants

 

[DiggersJo]

So the area gets early sun and lasts half a day, so you need plants that don't need full sun. Soil looks very poor to me, but that could just be the difference in countries, but I suspect not. To me it looks like you need to improve the soil, manure would be my first choice and then look at suitable plants - there are lots...