How to Get Full-Season Color in Your Perennial Garden

Every gardener has one goal – to have a happy, healthy garden that produces color and interest throughout the entire season. Almost anyone can have full-season color in their perennial garden; all it takes is some careful planning and simple tending. Below, I’ll give you some tips and tricks for how to plan and execute a perennial garden that is in bloom from spring right through to fall.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Garden
• Time
• Money
• Patience

1. 
   USDA Plant Hardiness Map from Thriftyfun.com

   First, figure out the zone for your area and the sunlight and soil conditions in your yard. This will be important when it comes time to choose the individual plants that will go into your garden.

2. 
   A landscaper's sketch of a planned raised bed

   Next, you’ll want to plan out where your beds will be, based on the sunlight, available space, etc. and prepare them for planting. This article won’t cover how to prepare beds for planting, but there are several sources for this information on eHow or online.

3. 
   One of my favorite perennials, a toad lily

   Now, get a pad of paper and a pen. Write down your favorite perennials, and then add information to this list such as their blooming times, ideal planting conditions, etc. Your garden will be far more enjoyable if your favorite flowers are represented.

4. 
   Just one example of a fountain grass - there are many varieties

   Now that you’ve made your list, you’ll need to add some fillers. Fillers are plants like ornamental grasses, bushes, etc. These are used to provide some green to balance out all the color in your flowers, and to assure that you always have something that is in bloom, as grasses and shrubs often look their best when your flowers are waning.

5. Now that you’re armed with all of this information, you need to actually plot out where everything will go. One method of doing this is to go out to your newly-made beds and “draw” on them, using pebbles to create circles for the probable space each plant will need. Once you’ve fit everything into its proper place, you’re ready to purchase your perennials and plant!

6. 
   Daylilies

   When planting, be sure that you place early bloomers where you can see them from a window in your house – after all, who wants to go traipsing out to look at flowers when it’s still cold outside? Another tip is to plant daffodils and daylilies in the same bed. When the foliage from the daffodils is about ready to be cut down, the daylilies will be coming up and can disguise the droopy, browning leaves of the daffodils.

7. 
   One of my many varieties of sedum

   Lastly, check all of your projected plant heights before planting. There’s nothing worse than a gorgeous flower that you can’t see because some other plant has grown too tall in front of it! Think of both vertical and horizontal interest and choose plants of varying heights. Vertical interest can come from either taller plants or from garden ornaments like gazing balls and obelisks, while horizontal interest can be found in low-growers like groundcovers and objects like benches.
   
   Hopefully if you follow these tips, you will have perennial gardens that splash color from early spring until frost. Remember – give love to your flower beds and they will love you back by blooming profusely year after year!

Tips & Warnings

• Here’s how to figure out the difference between full sun, partial sun, partial shade, and full shade: full sun areas receive at least 4-6 hours of direct sunlight during the growing season. Partial sun gets some direct sunlight, but less than 4 hours, typically. Partial shade areas receive no direct sunlight, but are not completely shady, and full shade means that the ground remains in the shade all day, such as on the north side of a building.
• Test your soil to see if it is acidic or alkaline. Most plants will adapt, but some do better in the soil they like best. Soil testing kits can be found at nurseries for under $10. Of course, you also need to be aware of whether you have clay, sandy, or normal soil.
• You can purchase your perennials at a local nursery or through mail order. In both cases, be sure the company you are buying from is reputable and has a guarantee. A good company should replace perennials that die within the first year of purchase, as long as there was no abuse or neglect of the plants on your part.
• Ideally, every bed in your garden should have at least one spring, summer, fall, and all-season bloomer. To make sure you achieve this, when planning out how much space each plant needs, take into account the space needed both during and after blooming. Some perennials die back quite a bit after blooming, so it’s possible to plant a fall-blooming plant quite close to some spring-blooming varieties.
• Keep in mind that you should always mix your soil with organic matter like manure, compost, or peat moss to make the healthiest plants.
• In the early years of your perennial garden, you may need to supplement your perennials with some annuals, just to fill in the gaps until your perennials are big enough to cover your space.

[Psalmist4M]

on 9/4/2008 Very complete and applicable article. Thanks for sharing. 5*s Blessings, cherylgoff.com