What’s Your Garden Missing?
By Kaw Valley Greenhouses, Inc.
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We all know that gardening can be incredibly satisfying when you get it right, but also irritating if you didn’t quite hit the mark. Summer is wrapping up and there may be spots in your garden that you didn’t get to or areas that lacked interest in part of the season. Sound familiar? Never fear, we have the suggestions you need for next year’s garden plan. We are going to provide you with some good goals to shoot for when improving your garden for next season, and how to create eye-catching gardens all year long.
Some Important Starting Points to Remember
There are three major mistakes that people make when starting new gardens:
1. Poor Spacing.
2. Forget to have rolling bloom times over the whole season.
3. Plant and walk away, leaving their new garden to fend for itself in the summer heat.
Let’s walk through these issues and see what we can iron out for next year’s garden plan.
Spacing
When installing a new garden, a lot must be considered. Calculating for mature sizes and growth rates are two of the most important aspects of the planning process. Let’s assume you did this the best you could when you started, but it’s the end of the summer and you’re noticing some bare spots that keep gnawing at you. It is never a bad idea to plant more, you just need to make sure you have the space.
1. Measure the space you are working with and account for mature sizes of surrounding plants if your garden is young.
2. Read the plant tags! They are a wealth of information and usually quite accurate when predicting size at maturity.
3. Think about walking space, access, or just how close-knit you want your garden plants to be.
Spacing is probably the hardest thing to get right in a garden, because you have to be able to predict what it will look like in a decade or so. Don’t fret, it’s okay to get it wrong; having to deal with crowding plants is as easy as digging up and moving plants elsewhere or dividing those that have simply overgrown the space.
Rolling Bloom Times
Humans are visual creatures and we buy what looks good to us at that exact moment, but we are not always great at thinking long term. For next year, you might want to make some changes so your garden provides interest all year round.
For spring blooms, we recommend:
-Forsythia
-Iris
-Creeping Phlox
-Peonies
-Lilacs
-Candytuft
-Dianthus
For summer blooms, we recommend:
-Lavender
-Echinacea
-Hydrangeas
-Salvia, Meadow Sage
-Butterfly Bush
-Veronicas
-Rose of Sharon
-Shasta Daisy
-Russian Sage
For fall interest, we recommend:
-Stonecrops
-Goldenrod
-Hydrangeas
-Grasses
-Black Eyed Susans
For winter interest:
-Perennial grasses
-Shrubs with interesting bark
-Evergreens
Water and Continuous Care
Don’t forget to water your new plantings regularly! They must be established carefully—and this can take anywhere from months to years depending on the type of plants you’ve chosen. While it’s nice to think of a garden space as ‘one-and-done,’ this is usually not the case. Our gardens are growing, living things—and they are always changing! Proper maintenance, pruning, watering, and fertilizer are just some of the things that keep a garden lush and thriving. With this mindset, those bare spots in the garden are not annoying; they’re an opportunity to grow more!
If you are interested in what we are up to in our test gardens as we get ready for the next season, check us out on Facebook!
Need some advice on how to start a beautiful garden? Sign up for our email newsletter, and receive free gardening articles, resources, and container designs to your inbox.