Perennials are plants and flowers which live for two or more years. You can plant them where you'd like to have them grow, and some of them will live, grow, and thrive for twenty years or more. Some perennial plants only live for two to three years, but on average most will live for at least five years. This makes them an excellent investment for long term garden planning.

Since perennial plants tend to be a long term decision though, where you plant them and the types of plants you choose are critical decisions to make during your garden planning process. You won't be happy putting a perennial plant in a prime location for instance, only to find out later you don't like the plant at all and you're unable to easily get rid of it.

Most new gardeners will plant a mixture of annual and perennial plants together in a new garden though, because the annuals give them immediate flower blooms and bursts of color while the perennials are still becoming established. Some perennials won't even bloom for the first year or two either, and this can be frustrating and disappointing for someone when they first plant their gardens.

Most fruits are perennial plants, as are shrubs, bushes and trees. Strawberries and grapes for instance, often don't produce fruits the first year or two they're in the ground. Grapes require some sort of climbing support as well, because they are a vine. Strawberries on the other hand, will send out shoots which take root and start new strawberry plants. You can help encourage your strawberry plants to concentrate on creating fruits by snipping off most of the new shoots that the plant sends out.

Since fruits are high in water content, the plants which grow those fruits require large amounts of water to grow successfully. Fruit plants also require lots of sunlight too - usually at least five to six hours of direct sunlight each day.

Many shade loving plants are perennials as well, such as the various forms hosta plants that can be purchased at almost any local garden center. Verbena is another beautiful, long blooming plant which sometimes comes in perennial form too, and it's especially easy to grow in hot, dry climates.

Some types of annual flowers and plants will act like perennials simply because they reseed themselves each year. The morning glory vine for instance, and four o'clock flowers are two examples of annuals which produce massive numbers of seeds each year. Those seeds drop to the ground and are scarified over the winter, then they start sprouting up on their own the next spring.

Tags: Dianthus Plumarius, Perennials

Many new gardeners don't often understand how important it is to use mulch around the base of their flowers, plants, shrubs and trees. It doesn't matter what kind of gardening you're doing though: flower garden, vegetable gardening, container gardening, or planting bushes and trees, putting mulch around your garden beds will help you in a number of ways.

1. Mulching your garden plants and flowers will help you conserve water. By covering the ground around your bushes, flowers, trees and other garden spots, you're able to help protect your plants from the strong, hot sunlight of summertime, and this helps keep the soil around them moist for longer periods of time.

2. Weed control. Putting mulch around your plants and flower beds also helps prevent weeds from growing and invading your flower beds. Since mulch serves to keep the sun from reaching the soil around the base of your flowers, weeds will have a much more difficult time growing there. And the few hardy ones that do sprout up will be much easier to see and remove.

3. Cold protection. Mulch is extremly important and useful in areas which freeze each winter season. It's particularly important to place a thick layer of mulch around the base of tropical plants when you live in an area that freezes each winter. If you have a thick enough layer of mulch, you can often prevent your tropical plants from freezing and dying due to the cold weather.

Many types of mulch also just add another layer of beauty and sophistication to your garden beds too.

There are a wide variety of materials which can be used for mulching your garden. An excellent organic material is wood chips, shavings, or bark. Since wood is an organic material, it will slowly break down and be mixed into your garden soil, providing more vitamins and nutrients for future years.

Grass clippings or dried leaves which fall from your trees each fall are also excellent natural materials to use for mulching your plants and flowers, as is straw and hay. Since these are also organic materials, they will contribute to the overall richness and fertility of your soil as they breakdown too.

Some people prefer to use mulch materials which will last for many more years at a time though, and some popular ones include plastic, and rubber material made from recycled tires. These often come in the form of circular rings for placing under trees and bushes easily.

Rocks and pebbles can act as a mulch too though, because covering the bare soil around your flowers and plants with pebbles or rocks serves the same purpose: Retaining moisture and preventing weed growth. Traditionally though, most mulch was designed to both protect the plants and flowers while feeding and enriching the soil too.

Tags: Gardening, Garden mulch

Shade gardening is a type of gardening many new gardeners don't think of, because most seem to think that in order to have a beautiful blooming garden, you need to put plants in areas that get some sunlight. In fact though, there are some shade loving plants that are quite beautiful, and most of them create blooms of some kind or other as well. Many shade loving plants also tend to have beautiful colors and textures on their leaves and stalks as well, which helps bring beauty and interest to a previously drab, dark or boring area of your yard.

Shade gardening is not difficult at all, but it can seem a little tricky at first. And this is because there are varying levels of shade at any given time of the day. Some areas of your yard for instance, may have filtered sunlight throughout most of the day instead of full shade. Other areas may seem to never see sun at all, and still others may have deep shade for most of the day, with bright direct sunlight for a small part of the day too. And these variations in the amount of sun or shade a given part of your yard has will determine the success or failure of your shade garden.

There are some shade loving plants which cannot tolerate any direct sun for instance, but they'll do just fine with a bit of filtered sunlight each day. Other shade loving plants though, prefer to grow in full, deep, dark shade all the time.

The best plants to put into a shady area of your yard and garden though, are called Hostas. These plants come in a wide variety of textures, colors, and sizes. Most of them create beautiful blooms too, but possibly one of the most interesting things about them is how they create such a wonderful display of color even when they don't have any flowers in bloom.

Hostas are perennial plants, which means they live for many years. In fact, these plants actually get more beautiful as they age too, because they tend to create gorgeous clumps of color that keep expanding and growing each year. Many types of hostas also show even more color as they get older too.

Hosta plants range from very small to very large, and though most will do just fine in full, deep, dark shade, they tend to thrive best when they have at least a little morning sun, or some filtered sunlight throughout the day. Hostas will also grow quite well in containers too, so feel free to plant some for sprucing up the inside of your home, or the patio and porch areas too.

Tags: Shade Gardening