Keeping your garden looking perfect can be hard but here are a few things that you should watch out for when it comes to creating the perennial garden that you want to have.
You’ll start to realize that you definitely will want to make sure that the flowers are maintained. Dry and damaged plants and leaves make the place look like an eyesore, so you’ll want to make sure that you do take care of the flowers and such. You can snip off stems above the bud or the leak that’s dying and this will allow the flower to bloom once more and prevent the dead ones from looking bad.
When it comes to the beds you’ll want to edge these as well. You can keep the edge between the lawn and the garden itself tidy with one of those edges or a spade. Face the garden itself, and pull it straight down to the very edge of this, a couple of inches. Pull this towards you to get a wedge of this removed. Continue to remove this, and then compost the scraps as well.
When it comes to cleaning up, you’ll need to make sure that you do a seasonal cleanup as well. You can put mulch on top of that, and you should keep the perennials less than 10 inches near the grown so that they are protected from the cold. If you see dead stems in the spring, cut them and rake them.
Finally, get rid of any weeds that are there. Do this daily or weekly, whether it be with your hands, a hoe, a blade that’s sharp, or whatever. Just get them out.
When it comes to fertilizing, you should remember that perennials don’t have a lot to feed themselves on, which means that you could literally do one application of a high-phosphorus and a low-nitrogen fertilizer. You should limit nitrogen in the soil itself, and you should make sure that any biennial or annual applications of manure or even a finished compost is a good thing to have integrated as well, since it will improve the water retention and the texture of the soil.
One thing to remember is mulching. Lots of times, if your garden is already very packed with perennial plants, you won’t see weeds. They often just don’t happen. But, when you have a newer garden, or one that isn’t mature and still has some holes, you want to fill these areas with mulch, so you will want to make sure that you keep everything to a minimum in terms of weeds, and it will help with retaining moisture within the soil.
With mulching, you also want to go for both aesthetics, but function too. If you get one that is very textured, including leaves that are shredded, clippings that are dry, any hulls and shells, or even shredded bark and such, you’ll have mulch. You can get mulch from the store too, and you’ll want to avoid straw and newspaper as much as you can, since that will be super jarring, and won’t break down as well.
When you’ve got a tall plant with a weak stem, sometimes they need a little help. Staking is something that you do to help the plants get a little bit of support so that they can reach their full size. Some short plants do benefit from this, and you will want to make sure your supports are as invisible as they can.
If you have a stem that’s individual, you can use canes of bamboo, but if you’ve got an entire plant, wire support rings work. for plants that are loose and airy, a couple of thin branches works. You should put the supports into where they are every single spring, so that it can hide this as it grows.
There is something that happens here when you have seed heads and spent flowers. Sometimes, these are dropped right away, and sometimes they’re held for months. Getting rid of these heads is a good way to make sure the plants are ideal, and it will make the place bloom well. It also stops the plants from using all their energy when it comes to producing seeds. Once they bloom, some are shorn or deadheaded, it depends on the type.