Toni's Garden Gate

by Toni Leland

If you love a beautiful garden, but don't have the time, energy, or ability to maintain one – here's a foolproof small garden to fix that problem. Once these easy-to-grow-and-maintain plants are in the ground, you can sit back year after year and enjoy the beauty.

July of first year

The secret is using plants that all require the same light exposure, water, and nutrition. This garden is a full south exposure with intense sun. Soaker hoses under the mulch keep the soil moist in the heat. Most of the plants in this 60 square foot garden don't require deadheading or special treatment. What could be easier? Planned to provide color and foliage from May through October, all that's required is the initial planning and planting.

Several of the plants in the sample garden here have the added bonus of spreading and/or reseeding themselves, so each year, your garden becomes fuller. A couple varieties need some light housekeeping to maintain aesthetics, but nothing strenuous or requiring large amounts of time.
Here are my suggestions to recreate this particular garden, but you could use other varieties, as you choose.

Asiatic and Oriental Lilies for height - blooms June through August (Remove spent flowers)
Peony (small variety) for corner anchor shrub - blooms May, provides glossy green foliage through season
Clematis on trellis (this one camouflages the downspout) - blooms May/June depending on variety
Iris - blooms May, early June
Knock-out Rose - blooms June through first frost
Daylilies - bloom June through August (Remove spent flowers)
Jacob's Ladder - blooms April/May; often reblooms in summer if sheared back
Speedwell Veronica - blooms June/July; reseeds
Campanula - blooms June through August; spreads easily
Coreopsis - blooms May through August or September, especially if sheared back

White Lily 'Casa Blanca' and 'Stargazer'

Add some garden art, stepping stones, and hummingbird feeders and you'll have a gorgeous view!

This garden also has some gladiolas along the back, and a small Rose of Sharon tree that is kept pruned for size. The glad bulbs will not overwinter, but they added some height at the back of the planting. A florist's miniature rose has made it through three winters!

For early spring color, plant daffodil, hyacinth, and crocus bulbs in spaces between the perennials.

In late summer, as the daylilies finish, place containers in the bare spots to extend the lush look of your garden. Coleus works beautifully for this, and lasts until the first frost. Pots of mums could also be interspersed among the foliage.