Grow a Beautiful Perennial Garden
A perennial garden can be a beautiful addition to any backyard.
It is easier than you think to have a beautiful perennial garden. You just need to understand a few basic design and maintenance principles and you will be on your way to perennial gardening that will make your neighbors jealous. Following are some easy tidbits of advice that will make perennial gardening fun and rewarding.
Ignore the Tall in Back Rule
Most magazine articles about perennial gardening will tell you that the rule of thumb for organizing plants is “tall plants in back, short plants in front.” While that is true to some extent, if you adhere to that strict rule all of the time, you will have a very boring garden. A better rule of thumb: arrange plants so that they look like waves in an ocean. Staggering plants will give your garden more depth. Also, putting some tall plants in the middle of medium-height plants will provide natural support for the tall plants. Tall, airy plants like dill and fennel are great for any spot in the garden because you can see through them. They add more dimension. If you have a prize specimen that is very short, of course you will want to put it in front. Otherwise, play with plant placement and height in your perennial garden.
Perennial Gardening: Incorporate Different Plant Textures
A whole bed filled with impatiens might be pretty at the entrance of a shopping mall, but it isn’t so interesting in your garden. Your perennial garden will look best if you incorporate a variety of plant textures. If the plant is in flower most of the season, and the flowers are large or showy, they are what contributes texture. If the plant flowers only once and the leaves are the prominent feature, look to the leaves for the plant’s texture. For example, though a hosta flowers, its leaves are its dominant feature. They are large and relatively smooth. A good contrast to a hosta would be a Mexican salvia plant that has narrow, textured leaves.
Deadhead the Plants
Extend the life of your perennial flowers by deadheading them. This means removing the dead blossoms after they bloom. You can encourage a longer bloom out of plants like Shasta daisies and coreopsis if you deadhead. If you want the plants to spread, let them go to seed at the end of the season. If you do not want certain plants to spread via seed, you will need to deadhead those.
Use Slow-Release Fertilizer for Your Perennial Garden
Perennials will get leggy and weak if they are overfed. This is most likely to occur if you feed perennial gardens with liquid fertilizer. A better alternative is either a granular slow-release fertilizer or compost, which is the original slow-release fertilizer. Use these two types of fertilizer in your perennial garden and your plants will thank you.
Perennial gardening is much easier and more beautiful when you follow these tips. Happy gardening!
