Ohio River Valley Gardening: New to Bloomington, Indiana - what to plant?, 1 by sherriseden

sherriseden wrote:
Hi, all! Well, DH and I just moved to Bloomington, Indiana from Chicago 3 weeks ago and, while I know what the climate is, I don\'t have a clue what the soil is like or the pests, etc. The former owner of our new home has some nice borders, but there are some plants I want to replace. I\'ve been fiddling a bit out there and the soil seems sticky (clay?) and light brown as opposed to our Chicago black soil.

We had kind of a loamy-clayey-mineral rich-nitrogen poor soil in Chicago (away from the lake). My shade standbys were Hostas, Hellebores, native woodland poppies, and Solomon\'s seals. My sun standby was the daylily and . . . well, the daylily. I didn\'t have much sun and still don\'t due to lots of trees!

So what grows well in these parts? Maybe the same things? Would love to hear from fellow Ohio River Valley folks!

Here\'s our new home with a screened in porch we had built the day after we moved in!