Project Idea: Four Season Perennial Garden

A perennial garden can provide great color and texture year round if properly designed. While most of your flower color will be in spring, summer and autumn, your garden can also be quite spectacular in the winter months as well. Colors of blue, yellow, pink, and white will splash your garden for most of the year. For early spring color, plant Crocus and Daffodils. Later in the spring, White Candytuft, Yellow Lady's Mantle, and Red Bleeding Heart will produce a wonderful display. For the end of spring, try the combination of Pink Peonies and Purple Siberian Iris. Summer will bring flowers that bloom several months. A few long lived beauties include Gold Black-Eyed Susans, White Shasta Daisy, Purple Coneflowers, and Purple Veronica. Great fall color and texture can be achieved by planting various ornamental grasses such as Dwarf Fountain Grass, or flowers like Pink Autumn Joy Sedum, Purple Aster, and red, yellow and white hardy garden Chrysanthemums. A wonderful way to have winter display is to forget about fall clean-up and let your plants continue to show interesting texture and form until spring. Ornamental grasses have a striking affect against a fresh white snow cover. There are also a few perennials like Ajuga, Dianthus, Rock Cress, and Thyme that are considered evergreen and display interesting blue, burgundy and green foliage during the winter months.

Garden Tasks

Lawn Care

• It is best to mow your lawn at 2-2.5" to prevent broad leaf weed seeds from sprouting and to keep moisture in the lawn at this time of year.
• Apply a fertilizer with weed control.
• Apply Merit for insect control and to prevent damage from grub worms.
• Water your lawn daily as the weather begins to get hot and dry.

Landscape Maintenance

• Summer is the recommended time of year to prune most shade trees and spring flowering shrubs such as Forsythia and Lilac. Be sure to prune deciduous and evergreen hedges at this time of year as well.
• Spray a follow-up insecticide on all ornamental trees and shrubs. Red spider mites will do damage to evergreens, in particular close-needled dwarf varieties. Spray a miticide such as Malathion if noticed. The chemical is only effective for 10 -15 days, so this should be done in early, mid and late summer.

Planting

• Plant your annual flowers after the last frost which is often around Memorial Day in this region.

Plants of Interest: "Blue" Perennial Flowers

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