Easy Being Greener
Summer is for Flowering Perennials By Ken Hodge
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hat can be done for yards in the summertime to beautify, make more enjoyable and relaxing? Plant some flowering perennials! Unlike annuals that die in the first frost of the fall, perennials live for three years and sometimes even longer. lowering perennials can flower just as long a season as annual flowers. An example of this is the Perennial Verbena, it flowers for nine months of the year. The best feature about perennials is that unlike annuals, perennials don’t need to be replanted every year. The variety of flower colors, textures and shapes are much greater with perennials, as well.
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ome perennials bloom best in the spring and summer, while others bloom better in the summer and fall. By planting a variety of perennials, a garden can have flower color almost year-round. Perennials naturalize in the flower beds and come back year after year to enjoy. No need to reestablish every spring.
stablishing a flower bed full of annuals requires more watering and fertilizing care then perennials, so it makes sense environmentally to plant perennials. Continuous fertilization creates nitrate runoffs into our waterways and water table compromising the water we eventually drink. It is also important to note that when caring for perennials there is no need to till up and denude the soil for flower
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Photos courtesy of Ken Hodge
20 Community Seeds . Summer 2013