I love gardening and growing things. I can’t wait for the summer to see all the flowers blooming and get my tomatoes and basil into the ground so I can eat fresh veggies. But let’s face it, gardening can take time and can be labor intensive. How can you reduce the work involved?
For me the solution was to plant perennials in my various flower beds, do container gardening, and get a good layer of mulch or landscape fabric down depending on what kind of flower I was planting.
Mixing in perennials also cuts down on costs and labor. Since these plants come back every year and propagate, you don’t have to replant all the time and once it is time to split them, you can move them to other areas that need flowers.
Also, don’t be afraid to be eclectic and mix in different things, like vegetables with your flower beds. As long as you remember where they are it will all work out.
One last important thing to keep in mind: Make sure you know how much sun you get in the area where you want to plant. The little sticks in the plant pots you buy will tell you whether your plants need full sun, part sun or shade.
Here are some nice examples of beds with a mix of annuals and perennials. If you’d like to attract bees and butterflies, go for a palette of blues, pinks, and purples.
In Bryant Park you’ve got a riot of shrubs like roses and boxwood mixed in with biennial hollyhocks, lilies, petunias and more!
This Ocean Grove garden is heavy on perennials and shrubs. Hydrangea in the back and daylilies to the left mix with a gardenia, what looks like salvia and liriope, a border plant that also flowers!
and perennials.
Some of my fav perennials and annuals are:
Hollyhocks (they come up every two years and die down, but are good re-seeders!)
Petunias are awesome for hanging baskets, container gardening and along flower bed edges. Petunias are an annual, so you’ll have to replant every year.
Asiatic lilies and day lilies come in a wide variety of colors and come back every year!
Think about doing a little vignette in your yard. I hauled this old garden cart out of the shed to give it new life out front. Filled it with annual hanging plants – small petunies and Gerbera daisies. A hint: Got the plants at a deal price of 4.99 each at my local supermarket! So don’t think you always have to go to a nursery or big box home improvement store for all your plants.
I was going for a look that said, I’m about to start gardening here and I guess it worked because when hubby got home he asked me if I’d forgotten to unload the plants! LOL! Anyway, coupled with a good layer of mulch and some stone accent to match that around our driveway and I’m happy with the look! I just replanted/remulched this area after the deer decimated my hostas. Sigh.
There’s nothing that says spring might finally be here than the eruption of spring color from crocuses, daffodils, tulips and hyacinths. The nice thing about them as well is that once you get them planted, they’ll come back every year and provide that burst of doldrum-busting color.