My Low-Maintenance Perennial Favorites

In the beginning of the summer, a couple of friends asked me for some plant recommendations for starting a new perennial garden in Fort Collins. I figure there's more people out there who wonder what proven performers they could use in their new or established gardens. So, I've come up with a short list of my favorite perennials from my low-maintenance, drought-resistant and clay-soiled Zone 5 garden. The list consists of plants that have proven to be dependable performers year after year, super low/no maintenance and just plain pretty. A few are only appropriate for Western, arid gardens, but others are great for the Midwest, too.

Pink Wild Penstemon  (Penstemon palmeri). Short-lived but oh-so-lovely, this tall, showy beaut only lasted two or three years and has now been retired from my garden. I'm not sure if it's truly short-lived or if my clay soil was just too much for it. I think it was probably the latter, as it needs really quick-draining, rocky soil to thrive. It blooms in late summer. I have it on this list because it had the most gorgeous flowers I've ever had in my garden; and the hummingbirds, sphinx moths, bees and butterflies all loved it. It's also very low maintenance and needs no water after it's been established.

2012 in my garden

I ordered mine from High Country Gardens

 Rocky Mountain Penstemon (Penstemon strictus). These are native to the region, and I can always count on them to come back stronger than the year before. These are for Western gardens only, as they need dry conditions and strong sun to thrive. I also love them because they are a favorite for butterflies in our garden.

2012 with pink Penstemon Palmeri to upper left

2014. Salvia on left, Rocky Mountain Penstemon on right. Lady in background.

Swallowtail butterflies, sphinx moths, hummingbirds and bees love this dependable perennial

 Yarrow (Achillea spp.) of any kind grows and blooms vigorously all summer long. Some Yarrow is known to aggressively self-sow, so be sure to get one that doesn't if you want it to remain in one spot in the garden. I have two non-self-sowing kinds. A large, yellow "Moonshine" and more compact, white-flowered Greek Yarrow. White-flowered Yarrow can also be used as a medicinal herb. Yarrow makes a great cut flower and is so bright that it shines on moon-lit evenings.

I planted the Yarrow in 2012. Yellow flowers on right are Moonshine Yarrow, White-flowered Yarrow to left of them.

Two years later, it's thriving. Rocky Mountain Penstemon shoots up in between white and yellow Yarrow flowers 

Cut Yarrow flowers last a really long time in a vase and add a bright pop of color to bouquets

May Night Salvia (Salvia nemorosa). In my experience, Salvia does well anywhere. My dad had some (not sure which but it looked similar) in our garden in Northern Illinois and it did well there, too. I have May Night planted in the front yard in partial shade, as well as in the South-facing backyard in full sun. They all grow and bloom vigorously. They also self-sow moderately, and are always coated in friendly honey bees all summer long. Even when I'm dead-heading spent flowers (a must for Salvia), the bees have never bothered me. You'll notice that Salvia is a major player in my small landscaped area, where it's growing next to other favorite flowers.

nom nom nom. Bees loooove May Night Salvia

This Salvia has self-sowed to create a long string of plants. Pull out self-sowed seedlings if you prefer a  manicured look

Salvia is great for cut flowers, and is always a major player in my favorite vase all summer long

Jupiter's Beard (Centranthus ruber Coccineus) self-sows mildly and likes both full sun and part shade. It blooms from late spring through late summer with deep-red flowers. I wish I would have given it more of a front-and-center role in my landscape design, but you can still enjoy it if you look for it in the corner. I've learned from my newb design mistake! Jupiter's Beard does well in the Midwest, too, where it gets more water. I like it combined with Salvia, where the purple and red flowers, and dark-green and light-green foliage complement each other.

Salvia to left, Jupiter's Beard in Corner

Nobody puts Jupiter's Beard in the corner! Except silly ol' me

Deep-rooted Wild 4 O'Clock (Mirabilis multiflora) needs way more space than I planned for. It's taken up a big corner of my little wildflower area, but I still love it for its dependable summer-long color and extremely xeric (no)water needs. It is also deer- and rabbit-resistant. If you use it, make room for it! Also, my Midwesterner friends will not be able to use this one, as it only does well in the dry air and soil of the West.

Flowers open in the afternoon

Evening Primrose (Oenothera) is a new favorite for me. I'm pretty sure I have a Missouri Evening Primrose, aka Ozark Sundrop, but I can't be sure because I didn't buy it. My mother-in-law brought me some hardy flowers that had been divided from her landscape in Northern Illinois a couple of years back, and quite a few have done surprisingly well in the completely different conditions of my Xeric garden. Primrose is one of them. Now that I have it and have grown to love it, I'm noticing it in a lot of others gardens, too. That's proof enough for me that it's no fluke that it's thriving in my garden.

I've noticed that the Primrose spreads slowly, has pretty reddish-purple stems, buttery yellow flowers, really cool speckled sepals and blooms all summer long. Even the spent flowers look kinda cool, with an orange-y color tone. Oh, and they're super easy to deadhead, unlike Salvia. It's a true-blue surprise favorite for me and I'm so grateful my M.I.L. brought it all the way from IL to CO. 

Clear picture of newly opened flower with speckled sepals

reddish-purple stems visible in this photo

Iris can always be counted on for Spring color and beautiful, delicate blooms in the Midwest and the West. Plus, it spreads pretty easily, so you can transplant it into other areas after a few years. I don't know exactly what kind of Iris I have because it was one of the few plants that was already planted in our backyard when we moved in. I transplanted a few bulbs to a new area three years ago, and it has grown so well that it may be time to do that again.

Mine are planted in front of lilacs, and tend to bloom right after the lilacs have lost their color

If you are just getting your flower garden started, I highly recommend all of the perennials above. They have been low-maintenance, low-budget tested and approved over the past three years. I'm sure I'll have a bunch of new favorites to share with you next year. Let me know what your favorites are, especially if you think they might do well with little to no water!

10 Ways to Garden on a Budget

Gardening is expensive. I've been gardening on a tight budget from the get-go. This is a list of ways of how I do it. These are in no particular order, but I do consider #10 to be the most important rule for any kind of gardening.

Note: My low-budget approach is based on the concept that low-maintenance = less money. Although no garden is truly "low-maintenance," and many gardeners take joy in the maintenance of a garden, you do spend much less money and effort on water, fertilizer, soil amendments and replacement plants when you choose your plants correctly.

1. Use mildly self-sowing perennials. Some gardeners turn up their noses at self-sowing plants because they spread willy-nilly around the garden and can create a wild, un-planned look. Aggressive self-sowers are known to encroach upon more well-behaved perennials, so steer clear of those. Mild to moderate self-sowing plants give you the most bang for your buck over the years, offering transplanting options for other areas and filling in empty spaces in the garden. If you prefer a more manicured, well-managed look, stay away from self-sowing plants. If you love the wild, more "natural" look like I do, and you have space that needs to be filled in over the years, go crazy.
There are a ton of self-sowing perennials, but these are what I have enjoyed in my garden:

Hollyhocks in  July 2012. They have now self-sowed into this whole corner and side. Blanket flower, Salvia and Sundrops (all also self-sowing) to the right behind it. 

Kenzie and I picking some Blanket flowers (July 2013). They are short-lived but self-sow if you allow some seed heads to remain on the plant

Kenzie checking out a wild sunflower (July 2013). Birds love them and so do I. They have self-sowed throughout the yard. You can also collect the seeds and sow them where you want them, or share with friends. Seedlings are easy to pull up if you don't want them in a certain area

One small Salvia plant turned into three side-by-side plants

2. DIY. Do the design and (hard!) work yourself. Although working with a professional landscape designer and landscape company is guaranteed to deliver some great results, it can get expensive. If you want a gorgeous yard but don't have the money to pay a designer, do it yourself. Keep in mind that this approach does cost you in time and effort, but to me, that makes the results even more glorious. Always use a professional for big projects, especially those that include lighting, irrigation and major hardscaping (boulders, etc).

Our DIY design in 2011

3. Research. The library and Google are your friends. You'll save a ton of money simply by googling plants and gardening ideas that you're interested in, and figuring out how or if it'll work in your garden. I also like to get books from the library that will broaden my gardening horizons.
These are two books that I now own after first checking them out from the library. They are both written by a Fort Collins-based landscape designer who I've come to love:

4. Only buy plants from local nurseries who know the area and the best plants for it. Learn from my mistakes. Don't buy plants (including veggies) from the big box store. Chances are those plants have traveled quite a ways and are on their last leg by the time you get them in the ground. Avoid spending money on replacement plants by buying high-quality plants in the first place. Plus, you support the local community by steering clear of nationally corporate stores!

5. Use groundcovers. Like self-sowers, groundcovers can lend color and texture to large areas over time, saving you money on compact growers.

Reiter Thyme groundcover is used as a lawn alternative here.

6. Get your containers from thrift stores. Containers are sooo stinkin' expensive! We got nearly all of our containers from a thrift store, as a gift or with a gift card. This approach did give our pots and plants a kind of eclectic look, but that matches our style sensibility and personalities pretty well. If you like a more uniformed style, look for containers in the same color scheme and complementing patterns.

The large containers on the floor (the most expensive) were all bought with gift cards. 

7. Grow from seed. If you have a large space to cover, consider planting a wildflower or prairie grass area from seed. A little goes a long way, and it's way cheaper to buy a packet of seeds than a truck load of plants. This approach will cost time up front because of the soil amending, watering and weed-pulling maintenance that it takes to get things going, but it'll save you a ton of money in the long run.

8. Do a little at a time. Cultivation of any kind takes time. Gardening is all about learning, and you simply can't take any short cuts when you're acquiring knowledge from experience. I split my projects into spring and fall (and years) so that I don't have to spend a bunch of money and effort at the same time. And I always have plans for my gardening future.

2011

2014

9. Ask for gift cards as presents. My birthday is in May, so I almost always ask for a gift card to the local nursery or Xeric mail-order website (High Country Gardens) for my birthday. I always have more plants, soil and other gardening essentials that I want to buy, so help from family goes a long way.

10. And for my golden rule of perennial gardening: Always choose plants that do well in your climate and soil. You're just throwing your money away if you choose plants purely on looks. I've learned from research and experience that native perennials are great, but only if they are well-suited for your particular area. For instance, Columbines are native to Colorado (and the state flower!), but I rarely use them because they are native to creek-side woodland areas and require too much water and loamy soil, which I don't have. I chose a low-water hybrid Columbine for my shady front bed, and it still only does well when we get a lot of rain or I remember to water it often.

Don't limit yourself to natives, but do limit yourself to plants that have their origin in a similar climate and soil. For instance, plants from the highlands of Turkey and other Middle East locations have been proven to do well in the Front Range of Colorado because they have similar soils and climates. Take the time to research (see #3) and get to know your garden's microclimate, and you shall be rewarded.

I'm always looking to get more bang for my buck, so let me know what has proven to be a good penny-pinching tactic for you!

Planting

Yes! I've succeeded in getting pictures posted. And now they are outdated. Oh well, newer ones to come. 


In the process of re-vamping the previous owners' dog pen. To the left is  future Xeriscaping. To the right are veggie beds and wildflowers.

  It took many weekends of digging up weeds and T-bars to simply get this part of the yard to look like a dirt patch.  I was most likely weeding when the above picture was taken. That's our 7mo. old dog, Scout standing by the wheelbarrow. She hates being separated from me when I'm working behind the garden fence.



Flowers discussed in June 2nd post in front and rear, two garden beds, flagstone path and wildflowers seedlings

 There were old Lilac bushes lining the entirety of the back fence. We pulled up all of the old, dead and dieing Lilacs and trimmed up the rest. You can see a couple of the remaining buses near the back fence. One of them shades a Zucchini in one bed -- the veggie I thought could stand the most shade. The bloomed so profusely during the beginning of May that a wave of sweet-smelling Lilac goodness washed over you anytime you walked out of the house. 


Four types of hot peppers, sweet onions, germinating carrots, three types of tomatoes, two types of squash and chocolate sweet pepper

  I've learned that you have to be very patient with peppers. They are slower growing than most and they seem pretty fragile, too.


Wildflower patch contains two Hollyhocks, three Coneflowers, Coreopsis, Lupine, Bee Balm and constantly reappearing weeds.

  It's been a real challenge trying to tell the difference between sprouting weeds and wildflowers from the seed that we spread over a month ago. I'm not sure how the wildflower patch will turn out, but I always plant wildflower seeds with the vision of a lush, vigorously growing area of gorgeous, varying wildflowers. Someday I'll get there!


Strawberry plants

  Squirrels LOVE strawberries...almost as much as they love picking the seeds out of growing sunflowers (we've learned from experience in both areas). We've lost two or three new berries to the squirrel and as soon as I see a new one growing, I'm putting chicken wire around these. Fresh, home-grown strawberries are more important to me than aesthetics.


Window boxes contain Trailing Petunias, Zinnias and Snapdragons

  I bought home-grown, organic Zinnias, Marigolds and Calendulas from a lady who posted an add on Craig's List a while back. I planted them all right away and watched as each succumbed to the forces of wind and/or the resident squirrel. Now, I only have one Marigold left from the beginning bunch. I had to buy all of those healthy plants you see above (other than the lonely Marigold seen bottom left). Luckily, I recently had a birthday and asked for a Bath Garden Center gift card.


I planted Belleflowers and Minifamous annuals under the mailbox

 The previous owners had a nice and fresh bunch of fake flowers planted below the mailbox. I can't believe it took me a month to replace them with real plants. I chose trailing types of flowers for the container with the vision of vivid flowers cascading over the edges. We're not there yet, but they are remaining healthy and are a step above the fake stuff.

It's taken me so long to post all of these pictures that I've got to hurry and post new pictures...of our HAIL-DAMAGED(!!) garden. This weekend will be full of damage-control as well as our already planned landscaping work. We are planning on edging and landscaping the area to the left of the fenced-in garden with river rock, cobbles and eventually xeric (low-water) plants that I recently bought with my b-day gift cards to High Country Gardens, my new gardening obsession.

Tip: While it's certainly encouraged to have high hopes for your garden, remember that it takes lots of time and hard work.

Digging: Wildflowers

Thanks for being patient with this burgeoning blog! I've spent too many weekends focused on weeding and preparing the land for my dream garden. It was a little disheartening to see the slow, barely visible process of preparation, but, like the search for "solid ground" in the life we lead, the digging is hard work that must be done.
 After painstakingly digging out the myriad of weeds in what used to be the previous owner's dog pen, P restructured the pen to be the perfect size for two raised garden beds and a wildflower patch. All of the T-bars in the area we will be xeriscaping (gardening with plants that need little to no water) had to be removed and the wire fencing was re-attached to the remaining T-bars to fit the garden area. We left around three feet between each bed for a path and Patrick added flagstone stepping stones for the path between the garden beds and the wildflower patch.
 Before I had the patch weeded, I picked up some gorgeous single-flower hollyhocks from a lady who was thinning her hollyhocks for the spring. I came home with three fledgling hollyhocks and planted them near the North fence of the garden. Hollyhocks are extremely easy to grow, thrive in hot, sunny areas and need to be planted near a wall or fence for support because they can get up to eight feet tall.

Single-Flower Hollyhocks (the variety I have)

One of the Hollyhocks, planted end of April (pic taken end of May).



Double-Flower Hollyhocks


 A good friend gave me a packet of wildflower seeds as a gift when we bought the house. After getting the wildflower plot clear of weeds (for the moment, at least), P & I added garden soil, manure and compost to the plot and mixed them together with a garden rake. Then, P spread the seeds and we raked the soil again to cover them. I kept the soil wet for a couple of weeks and slowly the seedlings appeared. The only problem is that I'm having trouble telling the wildflower seedlings and weed seedlings apart! P's mom is visiting this week and she happens to be a super-weeder, so I'm hoping she can help me with determining what to pull and what to leave.
 On top of the wildflower seeds and the three hollyhocks, I picked up some perennials at the garden center to add some established flowers to the garden for near-instant visual intrest. Thanks to a generous gift card from the in-laws and a  Living Social 50% off coupon, I picked up three different types of coneflowers, one bee balm (aka monarda), three coreopsis (aka tickseed) and one agastache.

Coreopsis

Coneflowers

Agastache

Bee Balm

Both the coreopsis and the agastache require little water once they are established. The coneflowers and the bee balm are simple to grow, spread easily and require the same amount of water as the veggie garden and the seedling wildflowers.

Tip: Planting flowers/plants of similar water, soil and light needs in the same area simplifies maintence and reduces the chances of under- or overwatering.