Question
We just moved into a new house last fall. I have a flower bed in my front yard that wraps around my front porch. It had shrubs and a few rose bushes and a snowball bush. I removed all of the greenery. I would like to plant annuals. I was wondering if you could suggest some ideas on how to arrange the flower bed so it will be attractive for us and our neighborhood. I have used vinca, coleus, native grasses, and caladiums. I also have two flower beds in my backyard that have pompas grass growing in them, but my dog will not stay out of them. How do I keep her out and still have a nice back yard?

Answer
When choosing annuals, first try to evaluate the amount of sun and shade the bed receives. Shaded beds which have annuals which are shade tolorant, and sunnier beds should have sun loving annuals. It may be difficult to determine in spring before the trees leaf out, but try to evaluate this the first season and make notes.

I recommend choosing a few different annuals. You need some height and some color. Instead of cramming a lot of different plants in, I like to choose a smaller number of annuals and buying groups of 3,6, or 9 of each. Most annuals comes in 6 packs which is very useful. I then plant them in groups of 3 spaced around the bed. E.g. you may have 4 groups of 3 plants placed various positions in the bed. This gives a nice consistency.

I prefer to use some taller plants in the back and smaller plants in front. However, you can also get good results by adding a few 'soft shoe' plants around larger plants. By soft shoe plants I am talking about very low growing plants which acts like a skirt for the taller plants.

Try not to place annuals too closely. I like to space most annuals 1 foot apart on center (e.g. 1 foot between the middle of one plant and the middle of the other). I place them in groups of 3 this way. Then I leave 1.5-2 feet between those and the next group of 3. Pushing annuals too close initially gives a poor result later.

Impatiens are nice in front of coleus and caladium if you have a shady bed. You can also try pelargonium (annual geranium) for the parts with more shade.

Some people like to use a few colors, such as red, white and blue. Personally I love a mix of many, many colors. The choice is endless and very personal.

I think the most important part is to keep it simple. A few plants repeated several times is better than trying to do too much.

Whatever you do, the result will be best if you spent a few minutes every week going over the bed. Deadhead spent flowers. Weed. Pull out any plants which - despite good intentions - get crowded (move them to another place). Do this early and the rest of the plants will spread in nicely and give a nice result. Do this too late, and you will have poorly flowering, tall, lanky plants. Fertilize every 2nd week and make sure you water through the summer months.

-- Kenneth