"Time" Your Garden To Bloom Through Fall
Getting a garden that's full of color all season long can be a challenge.
But on The Early Show Saturday, Katherine Whiteside, an author specializing in home and garden projects, showed how to create a "timed" garden, with several varieties of plants and flowers that will bloom one after another, now through fall.
This Is the Weekend to Start Gardening!
Memorial Day weekend is a great time to start planting your garden. But, because it's a holiday weekend, many other people will be doing the same thing. So, make sure you go to the garden center or mega-store with a plan! With the garden centers so busy, there won't be a lot of help available, so you need to know before you go. Choose plants and flowers wisely; don't just go for the flowers that are in bloom.
More Color Is Coming!
Having a TIMED garden is essential for enjoying your garden all summer. By choosing plants that will bloom at different times throughout the summer, you'll ensure that your garden is full of color at all times. And remember, don't be afraid of green: Purchasing plants that haven't bloomed can still be beautiful, and when they do bloom, they can really make your garden pop! The lavender plant is a great example of this. Right now, it's not in bloom and is really easy to miss while shopping around but, when it does bloom, it becomes the star of the garden. It's also important to bear in mind that green is a color, too. You could have several different shades of green in your garden and, even though they don't bloom, they can still make your garden stand out.
Think Shapes and Ignore Spacing
Buying small trees such as evergreens and other shrubs are a great idea: Not only do they provide a great backdrop for your other flowers, they last throughout the summer, fall, winter and spring. Another plus to purchasing small trees and shrubs is that they will come back year-after-year. They might be a little expensive right now, but next year, you'll be ahead of the game! All the plants you buy this weekend will have directions for planting, and every one of them will tell you to space your plants out. IGNORE THIS RULE! Spacing out your plants is fine if you want your garden to look good in a few years, but if you want your garden to shine right away, bunch everything together! Doing that will not only result in a garden that looks amazing right away but, in a few years, you'll have plants to give away, or move to other parts of the yard!
Seed Now, Enjoy Later
When you're at the garden center this weekend, be sure to pick up some seed packets. These little packets are an amazing and very inexpensive way (about $2) to have a garden that will flourish all summer. When planting your other flowers, add a couple of the seeds right alongside everything else and, in a few weeks, when other things are losing their bloom, these little seedlings will be full-grown beauties that will fight their way through the greens and give you another round of color!
Small Timed Gardens
Not all of us are lucky enough to have sprawling backyards where we can plant an elaborate garden, but we can still enjoy the beauty of one on a smaller scale. All of the plants we recommend work perfectly in pots if they're arranged correctly. By mixing plants that will bloom at different times, you can have the same effect in a window box or a few pots on your patio!
Plant Information
Astilbe: Now in tight buds, later in summer, these buds will open to beautiful big plumes
that will provide a burst of color and excitement through fall.
Coleus: A good example of colorful leaves. Usually thought of as a house plant, but very useful in
the garden, especially in shade. This plant just gets bigger and better as the season rolls out.
Peony: Big beautiful bloomer now, will provide mounds of interesting green foliage for the rest of
the season. This works as a great backdrop for framing future blooms.
Lavender: A garden favorite! Flowers will bloom in mid-summer and have a
prolonged season.
Spirea: This shrub bursts into bloom mid-summer. Foliage provides color and form the rest of the
year.
Kalanchoe: Often thought of as a house plant but provides long lasting color in the hottest driest
summers.
Pansy: Blooms early spring, cut back MAY bloom again in the autumn.