530-993-4379
Sierra Booster
  • Home
  • Newspaper
    • Latest News
    • Letters to the Editor >
      • Submit Letter to the Editor
    • Old News Archive
    • Photo Tour
    • Events
    • About Us
    • SUBSCRIBE
  • Advertiser Directory
    • Advertiser Press Releases
    • Website Sponsors
    • Advertiser Area
  • Buy Ads - Services
  • Fishing Report
  • Contact Us
  • Admin Log In

Designing Gardens for Year-Round Color and Protecting Your Investment - by Melinda Myers

8/24/2021

0 Comments

 
Picture
Create a colorful year-round garden filled with flowers, greenery, colorful fruit, fall color, winter interest and a few surprises. Consider seasonal interest when planning a new garden or landscape. Adding a few key plants to existing gardens can help boost your landscape’s seasonal appeal.
 
Include a variety of plants with multiple seasons of interest as well as bird and pollinator appeal. You will look forward to the change of seasons as your landscape transforms throughout the year.
Use trees and shrubs to provide the framework and longevity in your landscape. Serviceberries, crabapples, dogwoods, and many others have flowers, fruit, pollinator, and bird appeal and add winter interest with their bark or form. Look for those with colorful exfoliating bark like paperbark maple, heptacodium, and river birch for a beautiful statement in the winter garden.
Include a few summer blooming shrubs like St John’s wort, buttonbush, panicle hydrangeas and Rose of Sharon. They add an unexpected fresh look to your summer landscape.
Perennials combine nicely with trees, shrubs, and annuals, adding seasons of color and texture. Include those that also attract songbirds, bees, and butterflies by creating a beautiful habitat. Blue star (Amsonia), Siberian iris, sedum, Rudbeckia, coneflower, and grasses are just a few that can brighten any garden with several seasons of color, provide homes for beneficial insects and food for the birds.
End the season with fall bloomers like goldenrod, asters, and hardy mums. These provide food for late season pollinators.  Leave healthy plants stand, providing homes for many beneficial insects, winter interest in the garden, and food for the songbirds.
Use annuals to fill any voids, add season long color and yearly changes in the landscape. Containers on steps, decks and patios help bring the garden to your front and back door.
Include spring flowering bulbs like tulips, daffodils and hyacinths planted in fall for a colorful welcome to spring. These and many of the earliest bloomers like winter aconites, grape hyacinths, and crocus provide needed nectar for early season pollinators.
Evergreens are always a welcome addition to any landscape. They provide shelter for the birds and year-round greenery.  Find new and interesting ways to include them in your landscape. 
Use taller evergreens for screening bad views, buffering traffic and other noises, or creating privacy.  Use evergreens with interesting form and texture to create a focal point in a garden bed or landscape. Combine them with perennials and flowering shrubs for added seasonal interest. 
Then keep your landscape looking its best by protecting key plants from hungry critters like deer, rabbits and voles. Skip the fencing and scare tactics by applying a rain resistant, organic repellent like Plantskydd (plantskydd.com) at planting. You will need fewer applications and the odor-based repellent sends animals dining elsewhere before taking a bite out of your plants. Apply repellent before animals start feeding and follow the label directions for best results.
Continue to gather ideas with visits to public gardens and partaking in garden tours. Be sure to take notes and pictures that you can reference later. Creating a year-round landscape is an ongoing process that is part of the fun and adventure of gardening.
 
Melinda Myers has written more than 20 gardening books, including Small Space Gardening. She hosts The Great Courses “How to Grow Anything” DVD series and the nationally-syndicated Melinda’s Garden Moment TV & radio program. Myers is a columnist and contributing editor for Birds & Blooms magazine and was commissioned by Tree World Plant Care for her expertise to write this article. Myers' website is www.MelindaMyers.com.
 

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    April 2014
    September 2009

    Categories

    All
    2015
    Sierra County News

    RSS Feed

    Vie
    ​w Old News

CONTACT US:

Sierra Booster Newspaper
PO Box 8
Loyalton, CA 96118
Phone: 530-993-4379
Fax: 844-272-8583
Email: jbuck@psln.com

Website Privacy Policy​
Picture
Local Weather
©Copyright Sierra Booster - Sierra County News - Editorial
Website by Chamber Nation