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Perennials are a gardener’s best friend: They return every year looking bigger and better than ever and, once established, can be very low-maintenance. When planning your perennial garden, keep these ideas and tips inmind to build the garden of your dreams—or at least one that will make your neighbors green with envy.
1. Pick a Star
Whether you have one perennial bed or 10, your garden plan should account for a true botanical showstopper. This might be an ornamental evergreen, a dwarf flowering tree, or a glorious hydrangea. Not every bed needs to have a showstopper, but you should give your garden at least one larger, established focal point.
2. Group Your Plants
When shopping for perennials, always consider buying more than one of the same plant to give that natural robustness to your perennial bed. For instance, instead of planting one beautiful fountain grass, plant three together in a group so they have enough room to grow and pack a bigger punch visually.
Place groups of the same plant together, maybe around a showstopper shrub or tree, and you’ve got a master gardener formula for your own yard. Planting in groups also makes a bolder statement and is more appealing to the eye from a visual perspective.
3. Pay Attention to the Sun
One of the biggest mistakes gardeners make in their perennial beds is planting full sun plants in the partial shade, or partial shade plants in full sun.
Before you invest in a lot of new blooms, take some time to record your yard’s sun-shade ratio: Does your bed get morning sun only? All-day sunshine? The time of year, leaf coverage of nearby deciduous trees, and your garden hardiness zone will all also affect the light patterns.
“It’s also important to note afternoon sun and morning sun,” says Tara Dudley, Angi Expert Review Board member and owner of Plant Life Designs. “Morning sun is a lot less harsh on plants than afternoon sun, so when planning your garden, be sure not to put any partial sun plants in the full afternoon sun.”
4. Arrange by Height
Because most homeowners purchase perennials early in the flowers’ life, it’s hard to tell what they will look like in a year, two years, or even 10. An easy solution: read those labels!
Height variation can make a perennial bed genuinely fabulous, but not if the tall plants obscure the beauty of the smaller ones. So place taller plants toward the back or center of the beds and keep the shorties up front.
5. Add Containers
Photo: Kirill Gorlov / Adobe Stock
Another fantastic way to add instant height to any garden is to include containers within a planted bed. Try adding one or two taller planters as focal points with something striking inside, like tall grasses and trailing plants.
6. Have Fun With Texture
Planting various plants with different textures gives your perennial garden a dynamic element—without even relying on blooms!
Reedy grasses look great next to broad-leafed perennials; dark purple leaves are a striking contrast with silvery foliage. Play around and see what combos you love.
7. Ensure Year-Round Color
Photo: Smadar / Adobe Stock
If everything in your garden blooms at once, you’re left with a primarily green bed for the rest of the season, which is no fun. Planting flowers that vary blooms from early spring (daffodils, Narcissus) and summer (coneflowers, Echinacea) to late summer (dahlias) extends the beauty of your garden.
And don’t forget plants that put on a fabulous show in the fall, like grasses that turn red (Prairie Fire red switchgrass, Panicum virgatum) and shrubs that show off their autumnal colors (Ninebark, Physocarpus).
8. Plant Pollinator-Friendly Plants
Whether these are native plants or just big bloomers, planting flowers that attract butterflies and bees not only ensures more blooms but deters pesky insects that destroy your foliage.
Some pro-pollinator plants include purple coneflowers (Echinacea purpurea), bee balm (Monarda didyma), Russian sage (Perovskia atriplicifolia), and Yarrow (Achillea millefolium).
9. Add a Few Annuals
Photo: Ronstik / Adobe Stock
The secret to a perennial garden isn’t only relying on perennials: Well-placed annuals can add instant color and can help fill in the gaps while your perennials grow, helping to prevent overcrowding. This contributes to the overall health of your perennial garden. Just remember to pick annuals that have the exact light requirements as your perennial bed!
10. Experiment
Chances are, you inherited some existing plants with your home garden. Don’t be afraid to move, transplant, divide, and just completely change out plants if they don’t work. Take a walk around your neighborhood, too, to see what does well—just be sure to factor in light patterns when you do.
11. Use Your Pruners
Did you know that cutting back blooms encourages more to blossom? Taking the time to do light pruning and deadheading during the blooming season will help your flowers last longer. And proper perennial and shrub pruning in the fall results in more significant, healthier growth come spring.
12. Mulch and Fertilize
Those truly fantastic perennial gardens you see, whether they are native plants or exotic cultivars, all likely have one thing in common: They are adequately fertilized and mulched.
Mulching your bed in spring can help combat weeds and retain moisture, and mulching in fall can help insulate plants from harsh winter weather. Fertilizing at least once in early spring and again during the growing season ensures your plants get the nutrients they need.
13. Accents and Hardscaping
Photo: Elenathewise / Adobe Stock
Perennial gardens aren’t just about plants. Having a few beautiful pieces in your garden like a birdbath, sundial, or even statuary (garden gnome, anyone?) will lend your garden personality. Likewise, well-placed hardscaping such as stone paths lends an enchanted feel to any homeowner’s yard.
