Perennials

Choosing and Planting Perennials

If you’ve been growing a vegetable garden for a while, you might be thinking that your garden is very plain to look at. Many gardeners begin their gardening career with a vegetable garden, but later decide that they'd like to make it more pleasing to the eye. The use of perennial flowers could be a great way to liven up your garden without adding any extra work.

Perennial flowers are strong, and usually local flowers that come back every year without having to replant or do any extra work. During their non-flowering seasons, the flowers and stems die back and the green plant will remain - When it’s time to bloom, entirely new flowers shoot up where the old ones were. However, some perennials flower in spring right through the fall to give you the added advantage of having color in your garden for most of the year.

Before deciding whether to plant perennials or not, you need to make sure that your soil has proper drainage. If the soil stays saturated with water for long periods of time, you should build a raised bed. To test - dig a hole and fill it with water. Wait a day, and then fill it with water again. All traces of water should be gone within 10 hours. If the hole isn’t completely dry, you will need to build a raised bed.

Picking your perennials can be a complicated process. The goal should be to have them flowering as much as possible during the year, so you should create a timeline of the year. Research the different types of flower you want, and insert their flowering times on the timeline. If you plan it properly, you can have a different type of flower blooming at each point in the year. Getting just the right mixture of plants can give your yard a constantly changing array of colors.

When you go to buy the plants from your local florist or nursery, you might be able to find a custom mixture for your area. This takes the really tough research part out of the job. Usually these plants are optimized for the local climate, and do a great job of having flowers ever-present in your yard. If a custom mix isn’t available, you can ask the employees to help in preparing a good mixture. They should be knowledgable and happy to help you put something together to meet your gardening needs.

Where possible, use mulch when planting perennials. This will reduce the overall amount of work you have to do, by reducing the amount of weeds and increasing water retention. Bark or pine needles work great, and you may have some available to you for free if you have one of those trees in your yard. As for fertilizer, use it sparingly once your plants start to come to life.

AS you pant your perennials, make sure to plant them according to the directions. Perennials tend to spread out and need room to grow. Follow these steps and in no time at all you should start to see flowers in your once plain garden.