Kerry's Garden 2008 Planting Plan

This article shows the planting plan for the main flowers beds in Kerry's Garden for 2008.

If you receive the Proven Winners e-newsletter you have been seeing photos from my garden, especially the two front beds, all summer (click here to see the photos).  I received a request to provide a planting plan for these beds so you could see exactly what I was doing.  That sounded like a great idea to me so here we go!

On the left side of the front steps I have the Red, Orange and Yellow Bed.  This bed has a few perennials but the all summer color came mostly from the annuals in the bed.

This is a photo of the Red, Orange and Yellow bed taken in early September.  The bed wraps around the edge of the porch.

This is the planting plan for the bed.  I tried to use color coding as much as possible to help you visualize which plant corresponded to which space but I ran out of orange, yellow and red tones so I had to use some blue and green.  The number behind the name of the plant is the total number of that plant I used in the bed. 

The number in the planting plan is the number of the plant in that area.  The orange represents Profusion Orange Zinnia which really added color to the bed.  The bright red is Luscious Citrus Blend Lantana which really covered a lot of ground.  The row of yellow plants in the back of the bed are are all perennials and, with the exception of the Goldsturm Rudbeckia, this was their first year and they really haven't filled in yet.  They will show much better next summer.  One thing to keep in mind is that the plants overlap a lot in the actual planting so it became very hard to tell where one plant ended and the next began.  The plan works to get placement of the plants but the actual bed isn't nearly this distinct.

On the right side of the steps is the Pink, Blue and Yellow Bed.  It has a larger percentage of perennials than the other bed but a good pop of the color came from the annuals.

This is a photo of the Pink, Blue and Yellow Bed.  I know there isn't much yellow showing, it mostly comes from the daylilies placed at the back of the bed.

This is the planting plan for the bed.  The yellow daylilies go across the back of the bed and were just planted this year, with another year to fill in they will be a much bigger presence in the bed.  I don't generally suggest planting rows of plants but since we don't have gutters I pretty much have to have a row at the back of the bed and then a break to allow for the drip line.  The Jolly Bee Geraniums (royal blue color) bloomed most of the summer and were a good mass planting. 

The Strike It Rich roses (tannish color) added good height to the center of the bed and still have blooms on them now, in November.  The bright pink you see in the photo is the Supertunia Vista Bubblegum Petunia which was non-stop color all summer and fall.  Much of this bed is perennial so there won't be wholesale changes next year.  I am looking to add something with larger foliage to this bed next year.  Everything in it right now is finer foliage and I think it would benefit from the contarast of soemthing with large foliage.