One way to cope with gardening with limitations is to specialize in a single group of plants. There are several advantages to this strategy. First, you can select plants that will thrive in your particular location with very little care. The second, and perhaps most important advantage is that all your plants will demand the same care. The only real disadvantage to this strategy is that you become bored with the plant species.
I'd like to recommend several easy-care plant species that provide enough variety to keep you fascinated. If you need to garden in the shade, you can't go wrong with hostas. I really enjoy studying the different leaf patterns and consider the flowers just icing on the cake. Another favorite group is daylilies. With careful planning regarding flowering times for the different varieties, you can have flowers from June until mid-Fall depending on your gardening zone.
If you prefer bulbs, you could easily have gardens consisting of nothing but lilies or dahlias. The lily bulbs are hardy through the winter but the dahlia tubers need to be dug each fall and kept in a dry peat mixture over the winter.
For information about the 4 plant groups mentioned this week, go to these resources:
North American Lily Society provides technical information, sources for named lily bulbs, access to society publications and an email discussion list.
American Hosta Society provides plenty of information on these shade loving plants.
American Hemerocallis Society is the place to begin looking for daylily information on the internet.
American Dahlia Society presents a guide to dahlias around the world.
Until the next article, good gardening to you.
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