Questionhi, we bought a house recently that has an area in the side yard , a round area, where the previous owners put a yard swing on top of a
reddish gravel. How can I turn it into a big,
round garden of flowers? Do I dump sand and peat moss in there quite deep and just plant stuff?
It is shady with those sun rays beaming down on it thru the tall trees. We are surrounded by
raccoons and deer so have to take that into consideration. They leave my red begonias alone which are in mostly sun near the door. Does this mean they'd leave other varieties of begonias alone? thanks.
AnswerIn order to make the area plantable, I would amend the soil with peatmoss and composted cow manure (or other compost) - use sand if there is clay soil, but if you have gravel you are better off getting some top soil or loam instead. (Sand gives good drainage, but so does gravel.) To tell if you have clay, scoop up a handful of moist soil and squeeze it into a ball - when you open your hand, if it crumbles easily it is gravel or sand, if it falls apart when you poke it with a finger it is loam (or a mix of soil types) and if it stays in a ball after poking it, it is clay.
Dig your amendments in down to at least 12" - work around any large tree roots. If the tree is a maple, it has many roots close to the surface, and you should give up on the idea of planting flowers there - plant some Vinca as groundcover and put your flowers elsewhere. (You can put them in pots placed in the area if there is no other place)
There aren't many annual plants that do well in shade that the deer don't eat - wax begonias are the best. A perennial that you can use is Geranium maccrorizhum (not annual geraniums, just this perennial one) - also Foxgloves. Deer sometimes leave black eyed susans alone. If the area is sunny, you can use Ageratum, cleome, annual salvia, or marigolds, but all these need at least 5 hours of dead-on sun.
Here is a website for a nursery that specializes in deer resistant plants: www.deerxlandscape.com
I hope this helps!
C.L. Fornari
