Have you considered a wildflower mix? 600 sq feet will run $15 or $30 if you buy by the pound. I bought some from
Peaceful Valley Farm & Garden Supply last week but there are numerous suppliers with all sorts of interesting mixes.

I have about an acre of bare lawn and I can't afford to dress it up all at once. Starting from the front with flowers beds and vegetables and tossing wildflowers in back to hold the terrority as I decide what to do with it. Even a clover is nice and it will enrich the soil (Peaceful Valley has more clovers and vetches than I knew existed).

I agree that a wildflower mix would be a quick fix, but it would only be a one season solution. Next year you would have a difficult time trying to determine the flowers from the weeds, and what to pull out and what to leave.

The good news is you can find a lot of help right here on the Garden Web forums to start this season. Many generous gardeners offer seeds just for the postage and a bubble envelope on the Seed Exchange forum.

Also visit the Winter Sowing forum and introduce yourself as a newbie and explain your situation. You will get TONS of inspiration and all the help you need to sow from seed.

Shrubs are beautiful and do give great structure to gardens, but they do not grow large in just one season (plus they can be costly). I buy all of mine during the end of season sales at Lowe's, WalMart, etc. In the meantime, use tall annuals in groups for structure.

Garden art also will add interest and structure. Check out the Garden Junk forum for inexpensive ideas.

Be sure to visit the galleries on the different forums and you will be able to see the endless possibilities you will have, especially since you are pretty much starting from scratch.

Remember that a garden is a continuing work of art. We have lived on our property for 33 years and I still change it all the time by adding, removing, replacing, and rearranging. Most important of all, just dive in and have fun with it!! :-)

Lyn

If it's next to an existing lawn, grass it over. Leave what you honestly and realistically think you can handle as a garden, if you like. Don't let its history dictate the current use.

Later on, if you decide to, grass isn't particularly difficult to pull up. In the meantime, the lawnmower will make short work of keeping it all under control.

Is there anyway you could post a picture of this area? What exposure is it? Full sun, part sun, full shade, part shade? I am trying to imagine 600 square feet. Depending on the exposure, you could get a couple nice shrubs, a small flowering tree (crape myrtle, dogwood, weeping cherry, japanese maple...start will small specimen...they will get bigger...but small is more inexpensive), some type of edging grass like monkey grass, lirope...this time of year a lot of people are thinning theirs out and are throwing it away. Join a local garden club and ask if anyone is thinning out beds. I belong to the local Mastergardeners group here and we share our extras with each other and those who are just staring out. Advertise in the newspaper or "penny pincher" free paper for any unwanted or extra plants. You might be surprised what you get. True gardeners love to share with others. If you lived closer, I'd load you up with some of my extras. Watch your newspaper for garden clubs having yearly plant sales to make money for their "projects". We have a yearly Mayhaw festival here and the mastergardeners all dig plants from our own gardens and start things from seed to sell at the one day event. We always price things really affordable. I am talking 10 cents to a couple dollars for nice large clumps of perennials, shrubs, trees, annuals...you name it. We make a good little chunk too. Good luck with your project and I hope you will post pictures when you get it planted! I have a 125 ft x 450 ft lot that I want to make into a rose garden over the next few years. I can't do it all the first year financially or physically. Whatever you plant no matter how small your plantings are...if you place a few nice sized rocks and some garden junk/art in the bed amongst the plants and rustle up some pine needles or some type mulch it will look great...as you are able to buy or as you acquire more plants, just pull back the mulch (hopefully you have already ammended the soil), and plant. It'll look great. Remember not to put mulch right up on the crown of the plants though...leave it back 6 to 8 inches or so from the main trunk of the plant.

Nanahanna

Sunflowers lots of sunflowers, for $10-20 you could buy several packs of different types of them and plant them from tallest to shortest heading south, it'll look awesome!!

-Kyle