Tuesday Tip – Perennials in your garden!

The weather’s warmer and I’m already out there working on my tiny ponds and getting my fingers in the dirt. One thing that’s helped me keep the flower beds green and with color is the addition of lots and lots of perennials in my garden! They come up every year, but they do flower at different times so you have to do some research to have constant color. Still the research is worth eliminating the back-breaking labor of replanting big portions of your flower beds every year.

The other nice thing about perennials is that they’re like a living journal of the places you’ve been and the people you meet. For example, I’ve got some day lilies in my garden that were originally given to my mom by a friend in the Rockaways nearly thirty years ago. I took a few lilies from my parents’ home to plant in my first home and took some from there to this house. I’ll likely take a few lilies to my next place as well!

Also have other perennials that my sis and I have shared and some from other friends so every time I see the yard, the memories of them come back to me when I see the plants they gave to me.

Here are some of my favorite perennials. Some of them are very easy to grow and propogate so you can give them to friends or use in other parts of your yard.

Daylily: If you can’t grow these, you’ve got major trouble in the plant department. In fact, many varieties need to be thinned out every couple of years since they propagate so quickly. That’s good because you can move them to other places in your yard and eliminate the bare spots. Daylilies will grow in virtually every kind of soil and sun combo. The other good thing is that you can now get some varieties that flower all year long and in lots of different colors from reds so deep they almost look black to lemony yellows. I’ve even got a version with multiple rows of petals.

Echinicea: You’ve probably heard of these plants since they are used in many herbal remedies. Echinacea are hardy and quite colorful in the late summer. The plant is also commonly known as the purple coneflower, but it also comes in a white version.

Astilbe: Astilbe are shade-loving and throw up tall spikes of small feathery blooms that last for a couple of weeks. They come in all kinds of colors and look lovely swaying in the breeze. Not as easy to propagate, but they do create tiny little plants each year which will grow to maturity within a year or so.

Black-eyed Susan:We first saw these on a trip to visit cousins in Maryland, apropos since it’s the state flower of Maryland. My mom brought some black-eyed Susans back with her and now I have a bunch in my garden which remind me of my mom every time I see them. Black-eyed Susans are quite prolific and can actually become like a weed at times, but the offer lots of late summer cheer and are easy to grow. They are in the Rudbeckia family and there are varieties out there that have other colors, like a deep orange with dark striations.

So, you’ve got some perennials in your garden, but they’re not in bloom right now. What do you do to keep full color for the spring, summer and fall? Well, plant some annuals in between the perennials and you’ll have the best of both worlds. My favorite annuals – pansies for starters. I love the velvety look of their leaves and their intense colors. You can plant viola, a perennial, that looks much like a pansy, but generally has smaller blooms!

Hope this Tuesday Tip gets you going in the garden this weekend!

Also – the Brenda Novak Diabetes Auction is in full swing and you can bid on a number of items! I’ve donated a few things and you can click here to bid on a critique and some books! This is for a great cause and there are some amazing prizes, so please drop by.

Finally — a major congrats to Kimberly Lang, from THE WRITING PLAYGROUND who sold her first book to Mills & Boon Modern Heat! I’m going to drop by today to congratulate Kimberly and you can as well! Just click here to visit THE WRITING PLAYGROUND!