Design Perennial Garden

look like after blooming. Some perennials have very attractive foliage that is a real garden asset. Some have colorful or variegated leaves that can be as valuable as flowers. Others need to be cut back or get very unkempt looking as the summer heats up. Find out the real story about each plant you choose.
Once you have honestly appraised the plants that will go into your garden, then you can work with their strengths and weaknesses to create a lovely picture every single week. Surround early bloomers that look awful in August with good foliage plants or strong late bloomers. By taking this approach, you can avoid the gaps and unsightly holes that most perennial gardens suffer from.
To draw a perennial garden plan, measure the garden bed and draw it to scale on a piece of graph paper. Place 8 sheets of tracing paper over this "master plan" and firmly attach them to the scale drawing with tape or staples. You will then have a tracing paper overlay for each of the 7 months of the growing season (April through October) and a bulb planting overlay.
As you choose your plants, draw them onto the appropriate month(s)' tracing paper overlay IN PENCIL. You will be changing and rearranging your plant placements many times before you are done.
To assure that you are drawing your plants to scale on your plan , cut cardboard circles to represent 18", 24" and 36" diameters. Most individual perennials will grow to 18" in diameter in 3 years. Many grow much larger than that. As you add plants to your plan, trace a circle of the appropriate size for each individual plant.
It is common practice, especially in larger gardens, not to use individual plants but rather to group plants together in drifts. This creates a more striking effect in the garden. The larger the garden, or the farther away from which you will be viewing the garden, the larger the drifts should be. ...

Perennials do not bloom all season long; rather, they have a season of bloom which can range from 2 weeks to 2 months or longer. When designing a perennial garden, it is important to truly understand when and how long a particular perennial blooms. Height, spread and foliage characteristics of plants add to their value and role in your garden, as well.
The foliage of a perennial is as important as the flowers! This is very hard for beginning gardeners to accept. When you first start out, all you can think of is color, color, color. If a perennial is in bloom for 3-4 weeks out of a 7 month growing season, and it's going to be taking up valuable space in your garden, you should know what it will