Specialty Gardening: Annuals do a lot for me., 1 by ButterflyChaser

ButterflyChaser wrote:
I only do a few annuals each year and they have to be big and bold. I prefer to garden with perennials and have a wide assortment of plants in my gardens, so something is always blooming. I'm moving away from beds that contain just one or two kinds of perennials. For instance, I've no longer have a canna bed. The cannas are scattered throughout my gardens, as are daylilies and irises, and such. I go for the cottage garden look now and am trying to layer in all kinds of perennials in each bed for all season color.

I've also found that a good perennial groundcover, like creeping sedums or saxifraga can make empty space look pretty. So I do a lot of different groundcovers. Then if a bed isn't full enough, I can add in a bird bath or some pretty statue.

I also do a lot of grasses, short and tall, because they're beautiful even without blooms. And I love my Arkansas Amsonia, yarrows, and bronze fennel. The ferny foliage is always attractive. Even the foliage on peonies is beautiful all season.

I grow a lot of herbs and mints too. So the scents in my garden are always a delight. It's not just about blooms for me but a mixture of fragrances, textures and colors.

Buying annuals annually can be rather expensive. And I get attached to my plants. I hate to see them die forever in the winter. The few annuals I do grow are:

coleus
potato vines
Balsam (touch me nots) - they reseed
amaranthus - many kinds - they reseed
morning glories
sword bean vine
Black Pearl ornamental pepper
marigolds in with my veggies

Here's a section of my garden that is all perennial, but most of it is daylilies. I'm working on adding more perennials to it and scattering the daylilies into other beds. I noticed last year that when the daylilies were done, it was kinda boring. I do have about 6 or 7 different kinds of grasses in this area and will be adding more this year. I'm also going to use my edible pepper plants as "decor". Peppers always add color and I don't really have the space for a separate veggie garden. So I'll just mix them in. If I have some big enough spaces, I may plop in some of my tomato plants here and there too.