Choosing and Planting Perennials
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Choosing and Planting Perennials
If you’ve been growing a vegetable garden for a while, you might be
feeling slightly disgruntled at how plain it is to look at.
I too began my gardening career with a vegetable garden, but I decided
that it wasn’t quite as pleasing to look at as I would have liked. I
heard from a friend that the use of perennial flowers could be a great
way to liven up my garden without adding any extra work for me.
Perennial flowers are strong, local flowers that come back every year
without having to replant or do any extra work. During their off
seasons, the flowers and stems die back and you can hardly even tell
the plant is there (rather than just dying and looking like hideous
brown clumps in your garden).
When it’s time to bloom, entirely new flowers shoot up where the old
ones were.
Before deciding whether to put in perennials or not, you need to make
sure that your soil has proper drainage. If the water stays saturated
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 an outline of the year. Research the different types of
flower you want, and create a timeline of flowering. If you plan it
right, you can have a different type of flower blooming at any point in
the year.
Getting just the right mixture of seeds can give your yard a constantly
changing array of colors.
When you go to buy the seeds from your local florist or nursery, you
might be able to find a custom seed mixture for your area. This takes
the really tough research part out of the job. Usually these blends are
optimized for the local climate, and do great jobs of having flowers
always grow in your yard. If one of these isn’t available, you can ask
the employees what they think would be a good mixture.
They should be happy to help you put something together which will be
optimal for whatever you desire.
You should definitely 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 the water retention. Bark or pine
needles work great, I have found, and depending on the rest of your
yard you might have them on hand at no charge.
As for fertilizer, you should use it sparingly once your plants start
to come to life.
When you actually go to plant the seeds, you should put them in small,
separate clumps according to the directions. This is because they tend
to spread out, and if you have too many too close together then they
will end up doing nothing but choking each other out. As you plant
them, throw in a little bit of extremely weak fertilizer.
In no time at all you should start to see flowers blooming up.
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Choosing a Garden
One that is Perfect for You? If you're thinking about starting a
garden, the first thing you ...
read more
Choosing and Planting Perennials If you’ve been growing a vegetable
garden for a while, you might be feeling slightly disgruntled ...
read more
Creating a Raised Bed If your current planting goals involve plants
that require good water drainage, I am sure you ...
read
more
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