Plant low cost, low upkeep perennial flower beds that forever bloom!
Don’t you just adore English-style gardens?
A few years back, whenever I went to my gardening brother and sis-in-law’s place, the first thing I always wanted to do was look at their English styled garden flower bed borders around the perimeter of their backyard.
English gardens have this full, casual appearance. Slightly rambling, yet something always in bloom in every nook and cranny.
I use to have low upkeep perennial flower beds awhile back. However that was 3 homes ago.
However I do know how nice it is to walk outdoors to a fully planted, always in bloom flower bed infused backyard. And I’d like it back again. But on a smaller scale.
Here’s some recent inspiration…
Roadside flower inspiration
I walk by this rustic fence along the road each day.
And all these amazing flowers bloom all summer long… all on their own.
Upon closer glance, that’s because these flowers are all perennials. Which basically means, they regrow and bloom all on their own each summer. Now that’s easy!
So if you dream of the idea of having a back yard filled with low upkeep perennial flower beds that continue to bloom all on their own each and every year, this post is for you!
Here’s how:
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Plant low cost, low upkeep
perennial flower beds that forever bloom!
Supplies you’ll need:
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(I prefer bags of mushroom compost or manures)
Preparing the soil
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1. Prepare your soil prior to planting
Soil that is fertile, holds moisture and drails well is going to be the key to the success of your flower bed or garden.
I used homemade compost and peat moss in my flower beds. However a short cut is to purchase bags of mushroom compost or manures, and bags of peat moss to treat the soil you already have.
If you desire to plant a larger area, it would be more cost effective to pick up a truck load or get it delivered at a place that sells bulk soil and gardening manures.
But the key for me is that the soil is fertile. Yes, you can continue to feed your plants all summer long which is helpful. But you’ll save time, money and will be AMAZED how much better your garden and flowerbeds grow if you add lots of manures to the soil right from the get go.
For annuals, especially in flower planters or baskets, I do like to add chemical liquid food or fish fertilizer throughout the growing season though.
HERE is how I trucked in soil for a flower bed when I created a garden walkway.
Plant just perennials
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2. Choose perennial flowers over annual flowers.
The key to having forever flower beds that always bloom every year without you having to repurchase them is to simply choose perennial flowers that will do that for you. It’s that easy.
I admit, you get more immediate impact with annuals, but unless you wish to purchase and plant over and over each season, starting a perennial flower garden is the answer to an eventual low cost AND low upkeep full colour backyard.
So bite the bullet, and choose perennials only.
3. Costly? Buy one at a time.
Perennial costs can really add up. So here’s my way around the problem.
Each shopping trip out, I’m allowed ONE perennial. Unless I come across the half price section as above. Then I can have… oh.. I dunno. Whatever I can get away with without feeling sick. 🙂
But watch it! The cha chings add up fast. One at a time is an affordable way to build up a perennial flower bed for certain.
And remember, it doesn’t have to be all done in one year. Add more each summer.
Purchase perennials when in full bloom
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4. Buy when in bloom
It’s great to purchase perennials whenever they are on sale or when planning a flower bed. However reading flower tags trying to figure out when they bloom makes planting a flower bed planting tricky. There’s so much guess work to it. So here’s an added tip that I know will help you too…
Look at your flower beds and note where it needs colour NOW.
Then go purchase a perennial that’s in full bloom NOW, so you know what will always bloom there and how it will look!
It saves so much guess work.
Tall in the back, short in the front
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5. Consider size and sun requirements
It’s a given to place tall in the back and small in the front. But remember width too. As well as sunny vs. shade. So reading flower and plant labels is important.
It’s worth your while to know what the future holds.
Move plants around if needed
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5. Shuffle on occasion
Once your plants get more established, you get a better visual on how the end result will look. So don’t be afraid, when the season is right, to water your plant well, then move it to a better location if need be.
I do this all the time. Dig up the biggest root ball you can muster to avoid root distress, reposition and baby the plant until you know it’s taken hold again.
I read somewhere that gardening is NEVER complete, for a true gardener will always shuffle to grasp towards a more pleasing outdoor vignette. But doing this too much can slow down the growing progress.
So indeed shuffle plants, especially in a non growing season. But slow down when they are at their growing peak so you don’t distress them and hinder their growth.
Use annuals to fill in bare spots and for instant colour
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6. Plant annual flowers in empty spots
Plant your perennials in forever places, but until they fill in, if you wish for immediate colour, plant annuals in bare spots.
But if you do plant annual flowers, don’t plant them sparingly.
Annuals look best tightly grouped for the highest impact. You want them to touch.
And if you aren’t getting immediate impact, what’s the point of annuals again?!?
Consider annual planters
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7. Plant annuals in non appropriate perennial spaces.
Planted perennials have their forever homes. However, if you consider planting annual flowers inside pots or larger planters such as an old wheelbarrow, planters help add height and make moving your annuals around much easier.
But just know what you’re getting into. Annual planters will need to be replaced each summer, as well as requiring more intense watering.
Plant them and enjoy them, but just be aware of the upkeep differences.
ie: When I went camping all summer, I never had to water my perennial flower beds. But I had to ask for neighborhood help keeping up with watering all the annuals and vegetable garden.
It’s a well known fact avid campers generally have sparse gardens. Ask me how I know. 🙂
Budget ways to add perennials
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9. Consider budget ways to add more perennials
- Watch for roadside wildflower blooms (where legally permitted)
- Trade small perennial samplings with your neighbors
- Look for half price plants
- Allow (applicable) blooms to fade and reseed themselves
- Take clippings of some plants to regrow
- Divide your own perennials off-season and place them in different areas
Perennials take time
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10. Have patience. Perennials are long term.
Growing a forever blooming perennial flower garden is a long term game. So patience will be key while you wait for the plants to mature.
Just try and keep in mind that you are creating a flower bed that will bloom year after year without any replacement!
Go buy your one flowering perennial next time you pick up your groceries. Then make it your mantra to keep adding a new perennial in bloom to add to your garden each time you’re out. You’ll be enjoying full season bloom before you know it!
What’s your favorite perennials to plant? Got any of your own tips for low upkeep perennial flower beds to share?
Other gardening tips and hits you may enjoy:
How to edge your flower beds like a pro
Create an easy garden-themed walkway with scrap wood
Create a rustic garden shed feature in your yard – with any building!
Make a pallet wood chair instantly!
I have a great tip – check your local farmer’s market for perennial starts. I split up my perennials every year (usually pot up between 400 and 500) and sell at our local FM for $1 per pot! It usually only takes 2 Sat. mornings to get rid of them all at such a great price.
I live in the southwest and have a black gopher problem…serious problem…they will eat anything and everything…even tomato plants!!!! The whole thing!!! So I have to use containers to plant or I have to prepare the bed with first chicken wire and then 6 inches of pea gravel and then the gardening soil. Now if I can just keep the bunnies happy and out of the beds, I may have a garden by next year!! Whew!
Hugs
SueAnn
PS I have to use irrigation…no rain!!!
Great post! I’m ready to get back in the yard now and play in the dirt! LOL! I try to add 3 perennials a year in hopes that I have a self flowering garden in a couple more years. I do like the tip about visiting the garden center for the “in bloom right now” plants to fill in where color is needed… and, although the maintenance is higher…. I absolutely ADORE that wheelbarrow planting!!!!! WOW!
Great tips!! I love daylillies — really love!! Where is a good place to go to get a list of plants? You know low upkeep, hard to kill perinnials… I am a list person! 🙂
Gorgeous post Donna! Caute wheelbarrow and shed and … !!! Super tips. Especially about how kids, camping, LIFE can take you away from that lush look… My tip is to divide many of those perennials as soon as you get ’em home from the store. If you look closely while shopping, you can pick those that have at least 2 growth points.
I’m almost done w/my Cottage gardens… My perennials have multiplied (and been divided) so much that I’m looking for a bit more of a structured garden in my front yard…. They were starting to bury my “garden junk” alive! I bought a bunch of evergreen boxwoods (that don’t grow too tall n need trimming). Guess they’re ready n waiting to “gitter done.” *sigh* All part of my craving order n simplicity on a farm that has neither!
Happy gardening AND camping!
I enjoyed this post a lot! I would love an English style garden in our backyard and this gives me a lot of ideas and tips to work with. Thanks!
Great post. I follow most of these suggestions. Gorgeous photos!
Ok seriously, you’re wearing me out. I’m assuming it must not be hot where you are.:)
Every picture is postcard perfect and all the flowers are beautifully grouped. How much time do you have to spend keeping the beds looking so pretty? Is it a daily job?
Is there a website that tells what you buy for the area you live in? My problem is that it seems no matter what I plant, it’s always the wrong thing. Either that or I just don’t put enough time towards it.
I can only imagine something as beautiful as what you have in my own yard. What an inspiration.
I love your approach! Great post! I love driving around our area and seeing what kinds of flowers thrive in others yards. That is how I know what will have a chance to grow in mine! Sometimes, they thrive to well! Anyone needs some lamb’s ear?
Donna, now that I have a garden, I thank you for your great information. I love flowers and am tempted ot overbuy. I will go to your method of on plant per shopping experience. Oh and I hardly ever buy annuals. ~olive~
This a a great post!!! I have a cottage garden too. I have mainly perennials, only a few annuals. I have decided to add more perennials this year. I go to the greenhouses and buy what is blooming at the time. This way I will have color all season.
~Debra
Blog: Capers of the vintage vixens
#8 Polly,
You are right. It isn’t hot here. And we have an abundance of rain. So you might say gardening is about as effortless as it can get around here. (except for all those healthy weeds we have to pull) 🙂
Labour wise? When my son mows, I do abit of weeding (2x a week). But I like wandering the yard each day it isn’t pouring rain so I simply wander, dead head, and water new plants when need be.
I don’t use a website for guidance, so I don’t know of one. I wing it, much like my decorating. 🙂
If I lived in a hot area, I’d personally go after drought resistant plants. There are many! When visiting the nursery, I’d ask someone or just read labels as I look at everything. My next goal is a small rockgarden somewhere and it’s pretty hard to kill those plants.
For hot areas, I’d also think about shade planting. Under trees, on the right side of buildings, etc. And ensure to add plenty of peatmoss in the soil so it retains more moisture.
If in doubt? Simply go ask the pros where you buy your plants. It’s nice to find a place to shop where the owners are passionate about their place, for they’ll offer up the best advice.
Donna
I’m so glad you posted this, I’m in the process of working on our front yard, this sure came in handy~
Thank you!!
gorgeous photos. I love that fence!! I have Chinese Lantern to share…….Yikes..warning with that one!
great tips, thank you! especially helpful for this novice gardener!
I love black eyed susans and all kinds of daisies. I’m addicted to perennials. Every summer I buy more and I’m running out of places to plant them since they come back bigger the next year.
I am working on my first garden and this year have done annuals in pots and love it. I would love a perennial garden so I’m going to do as you suggest, start a place with good soil and add plants each week or so and then each year.
I’m so pleased you’re enjoying the info! At times I wonder if I’m posting just no brainer stuff or if there’s something to learn from it. It never hurts to hear how another does their thing was my mantra. If you can pick up even just one new tip, it’s a worthwhile read in my book.
Looks like we’d better have a garden linkup late summer once all your flowerbeds are in full bloom! You can do it!! 🙂
Donna
Very interesting post. Unfortunately in AZ now we don’t have many blooming flowers…too hot! I just love lots of flowers!!
The best thing that happened when I had knee replacment surgery and was “off” from school was when hubby and I went to Lowes and I just happened by the perenials and the 6 inch pots were being marked down to 1 dollar! I got 18 and now wished I had gotten double but with my 70 hosta plants, my hydrangeas,shasta daises, day lilies, and all my herbs, it is the start of my garden! My favorite annual is zinnias, I will ALWAYS have them. their my favorite in small clear bottles in my window.