Multipurpose Plants for a ‘Fairy Tale’ Backyard Garden

 

The universe is filled with a variety of beautiful plants that can make your home classy, elegant, appealing, unique and natural.

Here is a list of some of the beautiful, multipurpose plants that you can use to bring your backyard garden to life.

Roses

They are beautiful all season plants. They bear flowers in a couple of colours, red, pink, white, yellow.

The green leaves beneath the flower add beauty to them.  The stems are decorated with thorns that give the flower a whole unique look.

Boniface Wanja, a landscaper at Bonre Consultancy Palour Bweyogerere, notes that roses can be planted in the ground or in the containers, they are best for outdoor.

They are drought resistant since the thorns help them reduce on the rate of transpiration in case of drought.

Roses have a beautiful scent that will give you a pleasant atmosphere especially in the evening hours. A grated rose is between Ushs 5,000 to 15000.

Bamboo Palm

Some people call them golden cane palm, areca palm, yellow palm, or butterfly palm.

Nnalongo Lillian Kawalya, a florist, says these can survive on little water and minimal supervision. Bamboos bring a feel of nature since they are air fresheners.

They can also be used to cool bright flowers.  Palm can work for both in and out door. You can opt for containers or have them planted directly in the soil.

A beautiful palm goes between Ushs 5000 to 10,000 and beyond depending on how old it is.

Boston fern

One could easily think it’s an artificial plant at first sight.

It’s also called Sword fern. It bulges with long leaves that sweep the ground. It has ruffled leaves that add on its beauty. Wanja notes that Boston Fern are better when placed in hanging pots to bring out their beauty.

They need daily watering and frequent weeding.

Lemon grass

This is a multipurpose plant.

It’s a tea spice and a perennial plant with a mixture of tastes, lemon being the strongest.

Ivan Kiiza, a gardener, notes that lemon grass will bring a great scent to your home. They can work well in pots as well are on the ground.

“Lemon grass drys very first and to keep the beauty, prune the dry parts and leave the green ones,” he adds.

Lavender

It’s a nice scented and sweet plant to grow. Lavender gives a variety of colored flowers red, white and purple being the commonest. They look good in pots and grow like shrubs.

“They need constant watering since they absorb too much water. Weeding is paramount to avoid insect attack,” Nalongo adds.

Sedum

This is a drought resistant plant that can work well in creating a rock garden. Sedum plants can stand any kind of weather and have amazing flowers.

They have beautiful thick leaves that help to store the water as well as give them a unique look. These flowers need minimal maintenance.

Air Plants

These are awesome plants that don’t need soil to grow, all you need is a container full of dry grass or just a narrow jar.

The plants live on constant watering and the morning sun that is not too hot. These plants keep their flowers throughout the year. They are good for indoor but can as well be used for outdoor.

They are in different types and shapes. Air plants range from Ushs 50,000, 150,000 and above depending of the type. Air plants give a home a classy look.

Petunias

These grow in a bush shape and will bloom often with many colored flowers. They attract birds especially humming birds.

Kiiza says they are cheap to maintain and bring cool beauty to a garden. They are good for outdoor because they love full sunlight.

In case its overgrown, you can cut it back to ground level and it will re grow into a new, fresh and better looking plant.

Lilies

These are herbaceous flowering plants growing from bulbs.

Their flowers are naturally decorated with a mixture of colours. The pink flower is dotted with thick pink dots, a green spot in the middle, a lining of white pink at the side and a number of green leaves emerging from the shoots that cool the bright flower.

Rose Masika, a florist in Bukoto, notes that there are other lilies in red, cream, orange, white among other colours. These plants bring beauty and life to the garden.

Vegetable plants

Cherry tomatoes

These plants include: cherry tomatoes, egg plants and straw berries. They need to be sprayed to avoid pest invasion, constant weeding is also vital.

She adds that these can work well as hanging plants, they are multipurpose as they bring beauty and can be eaten.

Daffodils

These are pretty and attractive flowers.  They are best for indoor as they give a house a lit mood.

Daffodil flowers are in a variety of colours that are naturally blended to give them an outstanding look.

Wanja notes that yellow and white are the most common types but there are other colours like cream, red, purple among others.