How to Keep Your Perennial Garden Looking Great Season after Season

Now that you have planned, selected and planted your garden and you feel that it is looking the way you want it, it is up to you to maintain it so that it keeps on looking great season after season. Using the simple strategy outlined here, the maintenance task needs not to become overwhelming.

The best way to retain moisture in your perennial beds is to apply mulch. A layer of organic mulch will also reduce the number of sprouting weeds. Mulch can make the garden beds look more tidy and defined. Typically a new layer of mulch, even just a layer of screened compost, is applied in the spring. Organic mulches, such as pine needles, cocoa hulls, shredded bark, or compost break down quickly and enhance the soil over time. The smaller the pieces in the mulch, the more quickly the enriched nutrients in it are absorbed into the soil as it decomposes.

What is known as deadheading does not have to be a tedious job. Remove faded flowers and leaves as they wilt, or every few days. Get into the practice of walking through your garden before you go to work in the morning or after you come home in the early evening and snipping the unwanted old flowers and leaves. Keeping it tidy everyday can prevent it from being a dreaded chore later on. Hang a small basket on your arm for old flowers, leaves, and weeds, and discard them on your way out of the garden.

Perennial plants will grow and spread a bit every year, depending on the perennial, some can be invasive. It is important to maintain crowd control. Older growth will become weaker when crowded in an area, and may stop blooming completely. Dig and divide. Some aggressive plants may need to be divided more often, and others may not need it for five years or more. Keep the plants looking their best by dividing perennials every three or four years. Replant the divisions elsewhere in your yard or share them with friends.

Some annuals and perennials can create seeds that may grow the next year, unless you have planted sterile hybrids. It is best to suppress this seed growth. Annuals have many viable seeds that can quickly take over a garden or yard if not kept under control. A way to prevent this from happening is to deadhead before seeds mature. If seeds are allowed to mature, thinning out the new seedlings in the spring before they crowd each other out will help so that the entire garden doesn’t have to struggle.

Most importantly to make your perennial garden looking great season after season is to keep it watered well. Make sure the soil has the right amount of moisture. One way to make the task of watering easier is to keep your hose in a hose reel. This prevents kinks in the hose line that can block the flow of water making it frustrating. The maintenance task needs not to become overwhelming.

Dayelle Swensson is an avid writer for the web on a number of topics. Having gardened herself for many years, she is able to advise others about a variety of things including gardening tips, lawn and tree care, watering, hose reel and keeping your home garden looking good and healthy.