Every year my wife and I plant flowers in the 2ft×35ft sidewalk area in front of our house. Two years ago we did all petunias and last year we did a mix of petunias, salvia, and leafy annuals. We like the petunias since they are low maintenance, flower constantly, and put out a nice fragrance at night.

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I figured a lot of us on this forum do a lot of other gardening and I would welcome ideas people might have on what to do with the space. Annuals that I can start from seed in the greenhouse would be preferred and think pretty flowers!

I like flowers that grow back yearly.. I would plant peonies, lavender... zinnias are pretty and easy to grow

Botanical Interests sells flower seed mixes in small and large packets (large are around $6) and cover a lot of area. I planted the Save the Bees mix and it was actually really low maintenance and very beautiful. They attracted honeybees, bumblebees, mason bees and tons of tiny metallic green and blue native bees. Low cost, low care, and easy to change to something else the following year of you want to mix it up. I don't remember anything reseeding the following year, but basil is included in the mix and I have had that self seed every year from other sources.

Jay we plant perrenials in our other beds, but like something we can change out each year in this one. Zinnias might be a good idea!

Nurse, I will have to check that out. We use a seed mix around the greenhouse where it is too difficult to mow.

I like zinnias, like Jayne said, but moss roses are perrianels and are just gorgeous

I'll put in my vote for zinnias too. I'll add that it might be wise to favor shorter varieties. Not sure if it's generally true, but the taller ones I grew had a tendency to flop over, branch from the flopped stem, and otherwise start growing past the area I intended they occupy.

Other annuals I've found easy to grow and add a splash of color: marigolds, calendula, purple basil. Rudbeckia has been easy, too, though mine have been the perennial rather than annual varieties.

So does everyone have a favorite type of zinnia? There are a lot of different ones!

I love many varieties of flowers. Its hard to choose one but for your flower bed, since its sunny I would go with Peonies, Poppies (sunset mix), Cornflowers or Zinnias. If you want to attract butterflies I would go with Botanical Interests like BrightGreenNurse recommended. I would love to see pictures when everything is flowering! :-)

This was the flower bed a couple of years ago when we planted a red white and blue petunia bed. They grew in nicely and flowered all summer.



We got a really good deal on Petunias at Lowes after a late frost hit them, $1 per flat!



Last year we weren't so lucky, so I am trying to avoid last year's expensive nursery bill!

Cant see your picture...

I like a mixed-height look.  I did two pots of dark purple petunias with 1' dwarf red calla lilies last year in the center---it was reeeally pretty.  Plus, calla lilies have great foliage but they're expensive so mixing them with creeping plants helps.

I can't seem to figure out why the amazon drive photo links aren't working, perhaps it is time to go back to Photobucket.

I love calla lillies, but they are pretty expensive!

At Home Depot they were $5 for a pint-sized pot with 2 plants in it.  Just enough--it actually spread a bit during the growing season, so if I had thought of it, I could have probably lifted and stored the bulbs.  For your area, I would do one every 18-24" or so and then fill in the rest with petunia plugs.  It will all grow together pretty quickly if you keep up with the watering.

You also still have time to get bulbs and force them to start then plant them, but the HD plants are instant gratification in mid-late March.  http://www.easytogrowbulbs.com/p-886-calla-gold-rush.aspx

Check out Swan Island Dahlias and David Austin roses as well. Gorgeous and a bit different!

Hi,
You should try nasturtium .
There are several color, and two sorts of. One stays in a zone, and the others are climbing.
You can mix them and get a nice result.
They are just , IMO, tricky to start growing - as they need heat to sprout. But they really make a nice effect.

 

And Nasturtium is edible too!

Vinca (also known as periwinkle) and penta are both beautiful flowers!  Both come in a variety of colors and the vinca remind me of impatiens but are heat tolerant and drought tolerant.  The penta pictured below is also heat and drought tolerant!

Great ideas everyone. We planted periwinkle in our front flower bed and wish we never had. It is a constant battle to keep it from taking over everything!

Really?  Mine don't come back... Salvia is another good one - heat and drought tolerant.  You may not NEED that quality, but it sure does help:)

Just a quick update... we planted the zinnias tonight. There were also dianthus that came back and we left for now. Our plan is to put wave petunias in front of the zinnias to hang over the curb, we just need to find some for a good price!

I love Zinnias!  They are great as cut flowers as well.  I'll look forward to an update when all is flowering.

I love Zinnias too, I have a windy corner, Zinnias can handle strong wind, it doesn't have ants/pests problems like other plants in my garden, low maintenance and flower from mid of summer till end of fall.

petunia is also a great plant, however, it doesn't like wind plus its flowers get wet and melt.

dianthu is a great plant too, low maintenance, it grows 2-3 years in my area.

I am pretty sure that your side walk will look amazing.

An update on the sidewalk...