Help me plant my garden please.

Which direction does the garden face - north, east, south, or west? And do you have any personal preferences - plants, colors, perennials/annuals, etc.?

Okay, I am assuming its a Southern or Southwestern exposure.

Try looking for sun loving perennials or low maintenance roses that are disease resistant. Low growing roses such as Drift or Flower Carpet roses are a nice low growing rose bush for that 3' size spot. Visit some public gardens in your area to get ideas.

Get a pH test done on the soil (to see if lime is needed or not) and remember that if you purchase shrubs to know what the mature height and width are of the shrub. Their is only one shrub I can think of off the top of my head for color-- in spring that doesn't get too large-- Weigela florida 'Minuet'. Weigela florida 'Midnight Wine' and a variegated variety called 'My Monet'.

Google the internet for images of these shrubs in bloom. I own 'Minuet' & 'Midnight Wine'. 'Midnight Wine' graces next to a tool shed and paver walkway-- the space also holds Astilbe (its a sun/shade area) and the 'Midnight Wine' leaves turn burgundy color as the weather gets colder in the fall before falling off for winter.

Consider when the party is - in your area, what will be in bloom then (if "bloom" is what you mean by pretty garden). You may prefer leafy color and texture.

You may want to consult with a local garden center/landscape firm.

Plants in containers are a good solution, too, if you haven't come up with a firm plan for the area, and can often be bought ready to go. Ornaments work, too - a nice statue, a bird bath, sun dial, etc.

If this isn't a prime entertainment spot, I'd make sure the bed is edged and mulched nicely and not worry about rushing into this - if people are parking in the drive and see the front of the border, you maybe able to get away with a focal point right there, as you spend time to plan and develop a garden for that space.

One more thing, pretty much anything you do as a perennial planting won't look great this year. It takes perennials a year or two (sometimes more) to settle in and take off. For a graduation party this year (I'm assuming sometime in May/June) in Massachusetts, you'll probably be happier with loads of annuals. Nothing beats annuals for immediate impact. You can hit the local garden centers/home centers and stock up. For around a hundred dollars you should be able to get enough annuals to fill that area pretty nicely. They won't be at their peak until later in the summer, but they'll give you a nice display when you want it and much more later. You can spend more and buy bigger annuals in bigger pots if you really want it showy for the party, but the little guys grow pretty quickly and can save you a fortune.

By going with annuals for an immediate impact this year you can buy leftover perennials at local garden centers later in the summer when they're highly discounted (late June/July) and put them in then and then add flowering bulbs in the fall and you'll have a knockout display in future years. Once you get past that peak planting season, (mid-May to mid-June locally) garden centers start to look at leftover stock as leeches bleeding money from them and taking up space and they'll often mark plants down a ton to get rid of them so they don't have to water/care for them any longer. The longer they keep a plant the less profit they'll take when they sell it, so they want to get rid of them quickly. Every minute a clerk spends watering a plant and every drop of water they put on those plants costs them money and it's often smarter for garden centers to get rid of the plants at any cost to stop the loss. I've gotten beautiful plants for 50%-90% off by waiting a few weeks past the peak planting season.

Now if you want to splurge and you can find the right nursery you might be able to get some flowering peonies in full bloom at/around the time of your party. They don't have a long flowering season, but they're mighty impressive while in flower (May/June). And once established (assuming they're properly planted) they're pretty much indestructible.

I'm not sure if you can grow dahlias in your area; however, they are unbeatable, IMO. I live in the PNW and my dahlias bloom until November. I never dig them up ~ they return year after year and multiply like crazy. I just deadhead them routinely for continual bloom. They are also great for cutting to bring indoors.

On 2/5/2015 elainemasey said: Thank you everyone. There are some rose bushes planted now. They have not done much but that could be my fault as we'll. I give them little attention.

Once they leaf out completely, you can feed them monthly during the growing season up there with a rose food and twice a year with some Epsom salts. Roses take a lot of magnesium out of the soil naturally and the Epsom salts help replenish it back.

Keep removing spent flowers during the growing season and any broken or crossing stems or canes as they are called either in the springtime before they leaf out or during the growing season. Make sure that there is good air circulation between the roses and also in their interiors. You may want to set up some drip irrigation around each rose using soaker hoses and landscape U shaped clamps holding the hoses in place. Mulch over the hoses to hide them and also to deter weeds from coming up. I use an organic rose food called Espoma Rose Tone for my roses. A half cup to a cup sprinkled around the base of each rose is enough to use. You can scratch it into the soil or let it wash in naturally with the rainfall.