Growing Flowers, Fruits & Veggies

OK so we bought our house 5 years ago and I have never gotten to the gardening! We just got all the landscaping done in the back about 2 years ago. I am bound & determined to plant this year. :)  But I need help. I've never planted a garden before. I have beds designated, but I don't know what to put there or when to plant it. Ultimately, I'll be planting flowers and veggies, but veggies get planted in spring, right?

oh btw - I live in Salt Lake City, UT. I love hyacinths and lilies, fwiw. I actually bought a bunch of bulbs to plant a few years ago, but we had a family crisis and they went bad eventually..

So the front of my house has the largest flower bed. I have 2 ugly little bush things our builder put in with our landscaping and I'll probably pull them out. It's about 6 feet wide and 3 feet deep. There is no curbing or separation of the garden from the grass. This side is East facing. It tucks right into our house, and the front porch makes a big cement wall behind the flower garden, so I'm hoping to use some vertical tricks to cover up that wall, kwim? Like tall plants in the back and some shorter ones in front.

Next, my house has a big huge wall down the side to the back yard gate, just siding and a window well. The grass touches right up to the house. Is it possible to put some tall blowing wild-looking flowers along the side? (north)

Then in the back, I have 2 small areas separated out for some flowers. One is a triangle-shaped spot in the corner of the fence. and then along the back wall woven around the 2 window wells. Probably 10 feet long. West facing.

Oh and will anything grow in the window wells? They're so ugly. I don't know if I'm brave enough to go in there to plant anyway, just wondering. ;)

What things can I plant that will keep a continuous bloom all season next year? And what will grow well in my area? I like the full, blended garden look as opposed to the kind where there's exactly 6 inches around each bloom. Ideas?

  Visit Tayden's own website HERE   And my personal BLOG

If you are in a colder climate usually veggies and other stuff mostly gets planted to grow in late spring and summer. Some crops do ok in fall.  I really dont know about your area. 

As to what veggies, I think one thing you might want to do is see if you can sign up for some gardening catalogs, like Jung's, etc.  You might also check some of the various web sites various supplies have.  Burpee has a pretty good web site. 

I am biased but will tell you tomatoes are really great to grow!  After eating your own or those from farmers markets whats in the grocery stores just cannot compete!

If you like fruit you might want to see about planting some strawberries or raspberry bushes, etc. 

The internet ate my reply - WAAAAAAY

It is important to know your gardening zone. I think SLC is in zone 5, but you can use the site below to put in your zip code and it will tell you for sure.
http://www.gardenweb.com/zones/zip.cgi

Let me know what zone you are for sure and I can probably coem up with some ideas on specifics. Also what fruits and veggies do you all like? Do you have a local farmers market? If they are truly local famers that might give you an idea on things that will grow in your area as well.

I second getting some gardeing catalogs to browse through. Burpee is good and has a lot of the basics. I like Totally TOmatoes ( they have other things besides tomatoes) and Baker's Heirloom Seeds is a GREAT catalog. Gurney's often includes a coupon for X amount off an order on thier catalog. This spring I ordered from them and used that coupon for rhubarb and raspberries. All I wound up paying for was shipping. The rhubarb was GREAT and I had mixed results with the raspberries (but I think that may have been my fault).

I have established a number of beds over the past couple years. Some with flowers, some with veggies and some with both. This year I planted some Asparagus in a new bed (it will be 2 years before I can harvest it), so in the mean time I filled in with some annuals. In my case I used Zinnias since I got some free seeds from the local gardening club.

In many areas the local gardening club or the extension office has a sale in the spring this is often a great place to find varities of plants that grow well in your area. Even if they do not have a sale, the local county extension office/agent is a great FREE resource of things that do well in your area. Some extension offices even offer soil testing services, gardening classes etc. it just depends on your area.

SO I am not sure what a window well is, so I am not sure if anything would grow in it. lol! I am thinking though this might be a place to plant annuals though since annuals grow for one season only.

As I work on filling in flower beds, I do a mix of perennials and annuals - adding a few new perennials each year. Ornamental grasses might be a good option for the side of the house. Hollyhocks are pretty and are pretty bomb proof IMO. Foxgloves are pretty, but I do not recommend them since you have a wee one and they are poisonous.

Also I would suggest planting some herbs - either in the ground or in pots. Many are annuals, but some would overwinter in your area - likely chives, maybe mints.

I am assuming the ground is not yet frozen there (it is not here in WY yet). You might be able to squeeze in some lettuce, radishes or carrots yet this fall. Also fall is a great time to plant garlic for a summer harvest. Just make sure you mark where it is planted. :)

Follow up and we can grow from there.