Top Tips: Choosing and Planting the Perennial Garden
If you have experience growing a vegetable garden, you might be feeling
a little sorrow in just how plain and ordinary it appears. I was just like you and began gardening
with a vegetable garden. I realized that it just wasn’t quite as pretty
to look at as I would prefer. A friend shared with me that using perennials and their beautiful
flowers had proven a great way to liven up his garden and would do the same for me without adding any
extra work.
Perennial flowers are hardy, local varieties of flowers that come back every year without
needing to be replanted or requiring any extra work on your part. During the off-season, these flowers
and their stems will die back. You can hardly even tell your once beautiful plant is there. Instead of
just dying and looking like ugly clumps in your garden, they fade back into the soil. When their season
returns for them to bloom, you'll notice entirely new flowers spring up just where last years blooms faded.
You should consider a few things before deciding whether to plant perennials. You will need to ensure that
your soil has the appropriate amount of drainage. If water stays saturated for a long time, you should consider building raised beds. To test this, simply dig a hole and fill it to the top with water.
Wait one full day, and then fill the hole with water again. All of the water should be
gone within about ten hours. If it isnt completely dry, you will probably need to build some type of raised
bed.
Choosing your perennials can be a complicated process, primarily because there are so many wonderful varieties from which to choose. YOur goal should be to choose
varieties that will flower as much as possible during the year. You should plan accordingly by creating an
outline for the coming year. Research will prove helpful to determine the different types of flower you want. Then you'll want to create
a timeline for flowering. If you plan accordingly, you will have different types of
flowers blooming at any point in the year. Finding the perfect mixture of
seeds or young plants can bless your yard with an evolving and changing array of vibrant colors.
When it comes time to buy seeds or young plants from your local florist or nursery, you will probably be
presented with varieties suited to your particular climate and area. The nursery does the really tough part of the
research for you. Usually these varieties have proven themselves to be optimized for the local
climate, and do an excellent job of providing flowers that always grow in your yard. If these
aren't available, you can ask nursery employees what they they would choose and what would produce a good
blend. They should be happy to help you to find the optimal selections for whatever you desire.
I definitely recommend using some type of mulch when planting perennials. This reduces the
overall workload you need to do, by considerably reducing the number of weeds and
increasing the water retention substantially. Pine needles, bark, ground corn husks, and even grass clippings work great.
Depending upon the rest of your yard you might these available at little to no cost.
Regarding fertilizer, use this sparingly once your plants start to come to
life.
If you choose to plant seeds, you should place them in small, separate
clumps according to the directions. They will eventually spread out. if you plant too many too close together they will end up doing nothing but
competing with each other for nutrients, sun, and moisture. As you plant, toss in a bit of extremely
weak fertilizer. You'll find in no time at all that your flowers are blooming to provide you with beauty and enjoyment for years to come.