Where I Went Wrong When I first Started My Garden
When I first started the gardens at my current house, I planted all sorts of plants, shrubs and trees in various spots around the place. I started many seeds and rooted cuttings of friends and pretty much placed a ton of plants in a ton of locations. The main problem with this strategy is that I did not have any idea about the soil and micro-climates of many of the new beds that I started. I have subsequently found that some spots are much drier/wetter and some much sunnier/shadier then I had thought. In addition, the soil really spans the range of soils on my property.What I Did to Fix It
After I lost a bunch of good plants, I started focusing on trying less expensive species plants (instead of cultivars) in the tougher spots and doing my best to propagate plants that were doing well (to try these clones in other locations.) Now, I send out scouts (which take the form of a species plant that I start cheaply from seed or a root/stem cutting) to various areas before I put in the more expensive plants. Once I find a species that does well, I then move into purchasing some of the cooler cultivars and trying them in the beds, with fairly good success. I like to grow a plant in an area where it can survive on its own, with no water or fertilizer, and will thrive or tolerate being mulched (which is how I deal with weeds.) I also learned that 3 years is the key. As long as the plant does not become stressed in this time, I do not cull it out until three years have passed. There are tons of plants that really start showing their stuff starting only in year 3.Tips & tricks
* Get into propagating our own plants (seeding/rooting). This gives you a great source of sacrificial lambs when trying to find the right plant for each flower bed * be willing to think outside of the box. I have found numerous shade-only plants that do well in full sun (depending on the microclimate/soil) and sun plants that bloom their pants off in part shade (again, depending on the microclime.) * Learn to grow the plant before trying to grow the bed. When you learn which plants grow in which areas, it is much easier to plan how you want the bed to look with little maintenance down the road.
