Okay, I want to plant some flowers in the pots that are on my stoop and maybe some flowers around the bushes in my front yard. However, between cheerleading, summer track and my goal to get my health in shape once and for all, I don't have TONS of time. I would love some suggestions for what to plant. My front yard gets a lot of sunshine, we get a decent amount of rain here and surprisingly, I don't have a ton of weeds in the front lawn.

ALSO,for Father's Day, I came up with idea of having my crew make little herb gardens for their dads. Any suggestions on what I should be looking for to plant for those are also welcome.

Tiki.

Boy I just can't wait til I have a house with a yard. I always had a lot of success with things like daisies, zinnias and dahlias. They grow pretty quickly and are very colorful. I don't know about what's really easy to take care of or not, but I didn't kill them which is a miracle, so I'm thinking they probably do alright.

For herbs I like to think of what I would actually use - what type of cooking does he do all the time? I think good staples are mint, thyme, sage, rosemary, chives. Gotta be careful with mint though and put it in it's own pot or it will stifle everything else.

Happy gardening!

Basil is one thing I plant every year

About the only thing I can't manage to kill is spider plants, and whatever the other green plant in my kitchen is. It is really nice, and started from a friend's plant, so I don't actually know what it is.

I don't even have much luck with spider plants & faint in horror when people bring me plants as gifts. The guilt!

I agree on the houseplants. I think those bamboo things are neat, I am pretty sure I could keep one of those alive. What about some of the more attractive cactus plants or succulants. I've done pretty good for those ones inside.

Ivy is also no maintenace but it will take over everything so it may not be what you would want to do...

Plastic flowers. Low to no maintenance.

I live in a very hot climate and I often stick plastic flowers in pots in the summer on the porch, as real ones just get fried here.

Tiki, I wish you were closer... I'd have a ton of plants to give you!
Get some dahlias. They're really colourful, and they spread out nicely.

I have very bad luck with anything indoors, so I still stick with low-maintainence outdoor plants. I even killed a spider plant once.

But outdoors, I have had good luck with Sunflowers, Cosmos, Zinnias, and Azaelas. The Sunflowers and Azaeleas grow quite big -- as much as 6' tall by 4' wide for the entire plant. Azaeleas though, smell wonderful once they've bloomed.

My favorite herb to grow is Spearmint and Peppermint. They look nice and you can eat them! I love putting a Peppermint leaf in my iced tea. Lavendar, sage, basil and chives are also fairly easy to grow and maintain. I haven't killed one yet, so that says something.

I just planted some spearmint, chives, basil and parsley. I love fresh herbs!

Tiki- I am a first time gardener and have planted some day lillies, some daisies and a clematis plant. Keeping my fingers crossed that they survive

Tiki, how's the gardening doing?

How about everyone elses? Mine is looking fabulous! Although there are so many mosquitos back there, I can't get at it!

I am going to plant my tomatoes this morning before it gets too hot

My herbs seem to be doing well and the front garden is coming along nicely. I can't wait until Tuesday when the tree service comes to take care of the trees and stump removal.

Yeah, I bet they'll have a hard time getting those stups up!

Mauvais, your front yard is looking fabulous, dahling!

Thanks ellis! BTW funny girl, stumps is spelled properly now my fingers type faster than my brain can think sometimes