Impatient Gardener

Host: Gary Bachman, Ornamental Horticulture Specialist

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With spring upon us here are some tips for the impatient gardener today on Southern Gardening.

Many of us are suffering from cabin fever, impatiently waiting to install that new landscape bed that we have been planning all winter. Here are a few tips to help that new garden bed look more established. To get your landscape bed off to a fast start you have to begin with good soil. Till in a 3 to 4 inch layer of compost to loosen the soil for better drainage and allow good root growth. We all want that instant impact from a new landscape bed. Splurge on a few large plants, 5-gallon or bigger, to create a more grown-in look. Grasses, like Fireworks Pennisetum is a good choice creates multi-season interest. Add faster growing shrubs like spirea or slender deutzia to fill in open areas and create early floral interest. Flowering shrubs like Drift roses will give a floral display the first year. Use larger annuals like cleome to quickly give the bed size. Pack colorful bedding plants around the front of and between the other plants for quick color splashes. Adding flowering perennials like Mississippi Medallion selections for 2015 Suburban Nancy Gayle daylily and Delta Jazz crape myrtle will add summer color for years to come. The garden is a great instructor on the virtues of patience and like fine wine; good things come to those who wait. But if you use these tips can get you great results a little quicker. I’m horticulturist Gary Bachman for Southern Gardening.