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

When you decide to try your hand at organic gardening, one of the most frustrating parts of the entire process is trying to control pests, disesases, and other miscellaneous problems that come up with any form of gardening. Thankfully though, there are natural techniques which can be used to solve many of these common gardening problems, and one of those techniques is known as companion planting.

Companion planting is the process of planting specific flowers, herbs, and vegetables together in a way that either enhances the taste of the vegetables, and/or serves to help naturally control common pest and bug related problems in the garden.

Companion planting is important and useful for natural garden pest control, but it's also very important in vegetable gardening too. When you decide to plant two or more vegetable plants close together in your garden, you could end up with either a very bad tasting vegetable, or an extremely good one. And how your vegetables taste is dependant upon which companion plants you chose to plant together.

If for instance, you plant basil close to your tomatoes, or put them together into the same container garden, you can enhance the flavor of the tomatoes - particularly when using them to make home made sauces such as spaghetti sauce.

Chives is another excellent companion plant for tomatoes as well as carrots. Not only will the flavor improve, the growth of these plants will too. Chives also helps to keep aphids away from tomatoes, and they're thought to help keep carrot rust flys away too.

Chives can even help prevent black spot on roses. They need to be planted near the roses for two or three years before they begin to help prevent this common disease though.

Planting cabbage with celery, dill, onions or potatoes will benefit all these plants, but trying to plant cabbage too close to tomatoes or strawberries may cause problems with both growth and production.

Marigolds, also known as Calendula, are a very common flower to use for repelling pests around your home and garden. These little flowers have been used for this very purpose for centuries. You can scatter them throughout your yard and garden to help repel a variety of common bugs and pests. You need to plant marigolds which have a scent though, or else they won't work to repel the bugs. Some people don't like the scent of marigold flowers either though, so if you've never smelled them yourself, you may want to before planting too many.

Tags: Organic Gardening, Companion Plants, Marigolds

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