Need Advice - Flowers or Flowering Plants on Sidewalk

danielclark · July 2009

Hi Everyone

I'm in Brooklyn, NY.

The City of New York just planted a tree in front of my house. They dug and prepared a 4' x 6' area for the tree. I would like to plant some flowers or flowering plants ( not too tall & very low maintenance) in the the area beneath the tree.

I'm not a gardener and don't know much about flowers, but I do love to look at them. Please give me some ideas of what I could plant.

Thank you in advance.

antigone · July 2009

Is it sunny or shady?

pitu · July 2009

If you really want to get into it, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden has free classes for tree well gardening through their GreenBridge program.
http://www.bbg.org/edu/greenbridge/

The usual low maintenance choices: hostas, impatiences, four o'clocks, petunias, marigolds

Thanks for street gardening!

bug · July 2009

If I can grow impatiens and marigolds, anybody can!

lorenzo · July 2009

Your best bet will be shade plants that don't take away up too many resources as the tree will need a lot. Try hostas, impatiens, petunias and begonias - all annuals except for the hostas. Your tree needs lots of water - i believe 20 gallons per week which can be given all at once. If they installed a tree gator then put the water in there and it will distribute the water right to the roots slowly.

8thandprez · July 2009

One thing to watch out for is dog piss. It will be the #1 killer of your plants. From experience, some plants appear particularly susceptible: columbine, salvia, ferns. Others, such as hostas and grasses, have done quite well despite having been peed upon constantly.

Need Advice - Flowers or Flowering Plants on Sidewalk

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