22 Basic Perennial Garden PlantinG & Maintenance
If you only have a small lot, you can overcome limitations by
devoting the entire space to plants and do away with the lawn.
Some of my favorite garden creations are no larger than 20 ft. × 20
ft. or 30 ft. × 16 ft. Small gardens require more prudent plant
selection. Each plant needs to provide a long season of interest to
earn a place in a small garden.
My favorite garden style is a mixed border combining perennials
with shrubs, disease-resistant shrub roses, vines, grasses, pockets
of unusual annuals, bulbs (especially the small or minor bulbs), and
small trees where appropriate. Utilize the entire space by planting
in layers and using any vertical space available: bulbs tucked under
shrubs, vines growing on walls or in shrubs for support, and early
season perennials that can be cut back to make room for late
bloomers are all good uses of space. Most of the gardens I design
are not simply for visual beauty but are also for cutting, for attract-
ing butterflies and birds, and for providing fragrance. After all,
these are the garden experiences that most of us want. By utilizing
a variety of plant materials and having a decent amount of space
with which to work, I’m easily able to accomplish these goals.
Massed plantings (large amounts of a limited number of
different species) are often billed as low maintenance. But this
depends entirely on the species selected. The massed style can be
rather boring and limiting and is not appropriate in every situation.
It is also frequently misused. This style can be appropriate in a
commercial setting, in large gardens with large beds, or for a site
located far from the house or prime viewing area, where larger
masses are needed to carry the garden and provide proper scale.SELECTING PLANTS
There are many things to consider when selecting plants for the
garden, but foremost in many gardeners’ minds are flowers.
Flowers are a big part of what makes perennial gardens so enjoyable.
During the planning stages of a garden, however, it’s important to
understand that flowers come with a certain amount of mainte-
nance, depending on the plant’s blooming habit. For example, many
plants billed as long flowering may flower for a long period only if
they are deadheaded or cut back. The gardener must be willing to
perform this chore to extend the plants’ season of interest. Another
point to consider when selecting plants is that perennials that need
to be cut back in order to rebloom will reflower at a shorter height than their
original size. This trait can make possible interesting design combinations;
shorter plants may be paired with rebloomers during their second flush.
All too often we focus on flowers to the exclusion of foliage, although foliage
plays a big role in the perennial garden. It also comes with important design and
maintenance implications. When selecting plants, we should ask questions like:
Does the plant have attractive foliage? Does it die down gracefully, easily hidden
by other plants after its decline? Does it need to be cut back to maintain decent
foliage? It is important to think about what the plant looks like through the
entire growing season. Foliage may change to scarlet or yellow in autumn on
some perennials, and on others the foliage will hold its summer color into winter.
Many plants simply need to be cut back once per season to maintain their
attractive foliage. Others have foliage that is unattractive even with pruning.
This needs to be considered at design time.