What to Grow in Full-sun Areas

 

Sunny spots can host a wide array of plants.  With the right mix of sun-loving perennials, you can savor seasonal color from summer to fall frost.  Treat yourself to a yard full of color.   Designing a garden is easy when you are able to work with full sun perennials.

When choosing plants for areas with full sun, it’s generally better to stick with native plantings whenever possible.  Many full sun plants are also tolerant of drought and arid conditions, making them ideal for potted environments too.

Buying new perennials in a drought and planting them in the garden makes little sense, as they need milder temperatures to become established first.  So, you should wait until the heat wave is over, or your new purchases will die right before your eyes.  Buy plants in the fall or spring that are hardy and have plenty of time to grow strong by summer next year.

Winter-hardy succulents like sedum, stonecrop, and houseleek are optimal for dry, sunny gardens. Houseleek is even called "sempervivum," meaning "always lives," in Latin.  Succulents have the special advantage that it's almost ridiculously easy to grow from cuttings.  This way you have three times as many plants in two to three years without spending a penny extra.

Woody Mediterranean perennials and herbs such as lavender, rosemary, thyme, sage, and oregano are also excellent and very bee-friendly.  In dry gardens, all kinds of iris, yarrow, and purple coneflowers feel at home.  They tolerate dry soils well and have beautiful colorful flowers.  The sunniest flower of all, sunflowers, need 6 - 8 hours of full sun.

Happy Gardening

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Garden Rant about "Landscapers"

B E W A R E OF LANDSCAPERS

Planting a sun-loving flower, shrub or tree NOT in the shade - and a plant that thrives only in shade, NOT in the sun - should be a non-brainer. One would think. But in a lot of gardens, especially new ones, too often I find these critical errors.

When I ask the owners who created the flower beds - after hearing their complaints about the dire state of some plants - they tell me: "You know we had the lawn installed (well, rolled out the ready-to-go-grass) by a "landscaper", and he offered us to have flower beds and a sprinkler system installed.

Aha, a "landscaper"...
First of all, it is NOT a profession. Everyone can call him or herself a landscaper, it is not a protected word for a professionally trained person. A truck with some rakes and brooms, maybe a lawn mower, and you have a "landscaper" - armed and ready to screw up your garden.

They won't know a thing about plants or soil, don't even read the labels of plants or ignore them, won't pull weeds, rather use their "weed eater" gas-guzzling device that just hits the top of the weeds, not the roots. But they are good in selling sprinkler systems for shady and wet gardens, that are often completely useless. Well, selling a sprinkler system is easier than pulling weeds and choosing the right plants for the right spot!

Yesterday I walked along a former monastery, now turned into a seniors home, with an extensive space that was just transformed in a garden. I watched the workers that had planted Dahlias and Roses underneath!!! huge Maple trees and were just planting Hostas next to the fence and wall, along the southern part of the garden were these poor Hostas will suffer under the full sun that hits this area all day long. I asked the foreman why they would plant the shade-loving Hostas in full sun. His answer: " I am a landscaper, I know what I am doing".
There you have it:
Lots of self-esteem makes up for lack of gardening knowledge.