| Caridad Pineiro® Romance Author

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!
Bryant Park Gardens

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.

Spring is supposedly here, although in NY/NJ it’s hard to tell with the 40 degree temperatures in the morning. Still, some of us have been out there, doing some planting and today I’m sharing some tips.

1. DO NOT LISTEN TO JOHN ELLIOTT ON CBS. I love you John, but you steered me wrong a few weeks ago when you said the plants would be fine outside. Sigh.

Okay, the real first tip is:

1. Don’t rush putting out the plants. Recommended planting date for the Northeast is Memorial Day. You could push it and do Mother’s Day if the weather has been warm for at least two weeks or so.

2. Clean out old leaves and other debris from your beds and pots.

3. Work the soil and loosen it up so you can get some nice aeration for those roots. Add compost or other organic matter and/or fertilizer to enrich the soil. I also work in some cinnamon into the top 2 to 3 layers to avoid fungus gnats. The cinnamon kills the fungus the gnats need to eat to survive. Organic, too!

4. If you’re a beginning gardener, make sure to check out the areas where you wish to plant. Does the area get full sun or is it in shade? Morning sun or afternoon? Once you’ve done that, it’s time to pick some plants.

5. There are lots of plants that can handle colder spring weather. Pansies for one and I love them! Also some other favorites like dianthus and petunias. You can click here for a good list of plants that can take a little cold. You can also plant bulbs the fall before for spring color and then work in annuals once the bulbs are done flowering.

6. Head to the garden shop and pick out the plants. Check their little tags for info on how high they’ll grow, how far apart and sun and water requirements.

7. Time to plant. To make life easier, lay out the pots in the way you want to plant them. It will let you adjust before getting things into the ground. Once you’re satisfied, it’s time to plant.

8. The best time to plant is early morning before the sun is too strong or later afternoon. Planting during the heat of the day will stress out your plants. Make sure the hole you dig is at least 4-6 inches depending on the size of your plant. Also, if there are too many roots around the base of the post, break them up so new roots will grow and spread out. Get rid of those jiffy pots around the plant and flatten them to use as mulch.

9. Water thoroughly so the roots can get established and after watering, mulch around the plants. Leave a little room around the plant free of mulch so it won’t rot and try to get at least 2 to 3 inches of mulch to prevent weeds.

10. Sit back and watch them grow and flower.

Here’s a photo of my daughter’s first garden. We planted it in early April when we had a fabulous spring day. It was fun explaining to her what to do and I gifted her an assortment of daylilies from my yard so she wouldn’t have to replant the entire bed every year.