We are taking a quick break from sprucing up the patio this week. I still have a few things that I want to share with you guys out in the back but I wanted to jump right in on planting season first. Now, that it’s warmed up a bit in April we are so excited to get a bit more interest in our yard. Today, let’s jump to the front yard where we focused our attention over the weekend. We live in a unique area and most of our yard is pretty shady. We kinda have a wetland area on one side of our yard but it’s interesting because it’s also on a slope. So today I want to chat with you about Monrovia plants and, specifically, focus on Tips for Creating a Shade Lover’s Garden with Monrovia Plants.

You might think I’m crazy to say this, but I had NO idea that there were plants meant for shade, plants meant for sun, plants that liked wet areas or plants that liked drought. Seriously, when we first moved into this house – all of that was new to us. Over the past few years, we have started to figure out what plants work well in our zone (we are zone 6 here in Missouri) an which plants work for what areas within our yard.

Besides not knowing about our zone or what types of plants work well in our yard, we were just picking plants based on size and price. We had no idea that  the quality of your plant would matter. We have had so many plants not make it due to all of these reasons.

You can be assured that when you buy a Monrovia plant, you are buying a high-quality, healthy plant from a trusted grower. Everything from the fun plant varieties to the custom-blended soil – it’s all well thought out and lots of work has gone into creating a long-lasting beautiful plant.

Now that Luke and I are better educated on what types of plants to buy, we’ve definitely had more fun with gardening and sprucing up areas. This time around, we decided to just focus on one small area in the ‘wetland’ part of our yard.

It’s a bit hard to see but right above the rock bed (on the bottom of the picture) is a small flower bed that’s completely overgrown. I say small, but it’s about 4ft by 12ft.

The first thing we did was head to our local garden center that has Monrovia plants. You can locate your closest garden center here. Monrovia plants are available at local garden centers as well as Lowe’s across the country.

I knew that I wanted perennials and I knew that I wanted a bit of color. I found this Winter Jewels’ Amethyst Gem Lenten Rose and totally fell in love.

I love the look of ferns so I picked up a gorgeous fern as well.

To prepare the area, we raked out the random sticks and mulch. Once we had the area clear, we dug up random weeds and green onions (those suckers grow like crazy over there).

Next we rolled out some landscape weed barrier.

Luke rolled out the landscape barrier and placed it under the rocks.

I grabbed our beautiful, outdoor hammer (LOL!) and hammered in the staples around all the edges.

Within the cleared space, we cut a hole in the landscape barrier where we wanted our plants to be and dug larger holes.

*Tip: Each plant comes with care instructions that tell you how large the plant will be, when to water and how to plant it. We followed the directions on each plant.

It looks a bit sunny in this next picture because the leaves haven’t filled in yet. Soon though, this will be a lush-green area.

After watering the two plants, we spread mulch back over the area.

Gardening and maintaining healthy and aesthetically pleasing green spaces can be quite easy if you follow a few basic principles. Monrovia is available to help provide you with healthy plants and growing tips.

I can’t wait to see these two plants thrive.

Have you planted anything this year? What are your thoughts about your garden?