This is my first try at any real gardening. The two mulched beds out front of my home were planted with pansy's, begonia

Angela J
by Angela J
This is my first try at any real gardening. The two mulched beds out front of my home were planted with pansy's, begonia's, senator pink begonias, alyssums, dark stars (my fav), angelonia's, a 3rd type of begonia and some existing hosta's and a tiger lilly. Everything that i planted doesnt seem to be doing well. I pulled as much weeds out of the beds as i could, planted, and mulched. They're in full sun all day. I'm thinking I probably should have purchased some top soil since the ground is mostly clay, though i did keep them in thier original dirt. I water them lightly daily -by lightly I mean enough to get the ground saturated without any ponding. The banana tree is in the back still in full sunlight and was already existing, however the two smaller ones i had found elswhere in the yard and attempting to transplant them to this bed by digging them out about 6 inches from thier base and tenderly pulling them from the dirt. These seems to dying also. The ground in this bed had been filled with top soil and originally had some type of decorative grass growing out of control. I planted Penta's and a marigold looking plants. I would love any pointers, suggestions, or scoldings from any of you seasoned gardeners! Thank you so much!!
Frequently asked questions
Have a question about this project?
Comments
Join the conversation
2 of 19 comments
  • Pattylawhon Pattylawhon on Sep 21, 2014
    I seen one note about buying topsoil... it is cheap and I bought a lot before I seen that it may include grass seed... I had started seeing grass growing that was not in my yard otherwise and thought that it was because of the watering... just be aware...of grass seed in topsoil
  • Lois Franklin Lois Franklin on May 20, 2016
    Stop watering every day! You're encouraging roots to fan out close to the top of the ground rather than go deep into the soil! Cut back to every other day, until you get by without watering at least a few days. Few plants need that much water. Get some good compost and put it all over the bed for plants. I'd take up the mulch and replace it on top of the compost but once watered in, either way would be fine. Keep plenty of mulch on top. As it breaks down (creating it's own compost), add more. This saves on how much you have to water and feeds the plants too. The compost and mulch will attract worms that will eventually break up the clay and give you good loose garden soil. Just my thoughts.
Next