Paint The Garden
Paint the Garden
Annuals offer quickest color, texture and contrast to any flower bed
by Vivi Hoang
The Tennessean
One of the quickest ways to add pizzazz to your garden is with annuals.
"For many gardeners," writes Barbara Damrosch in The Garden Primer, "annuals are their most creative outlets so they can achieve so many different effects quickly."
Annual flowering plants are typically used as bedding plants, in which they're formally arranged in single species groups that contrast or complement each other.
We spoke with Don Willoughby who teaches greenhouse management at Mt. Juliet High School; Sizwe Herring, executive director of EarthMatters Tennessee, which runs the organic community garden Carver Food Park; and Troy Marden, host of Volunteer Gardener on Nashville Public TV and a designer for Moore & Moore West.
Choosing your plants
Look at the plot of land where your plants will go. What side of the house does it sit on? How much light does it get? Dry or wet soil conditions? That will determine the type of plants you need.
Some require sun, some need shade. Still others need a bit of both. And some plants don't care.
"Based on my experience" Willoughby said "petunias and snapdragons and dark leaf type begonias will do fairly well in full sun. On the other end of the spectrum, you have the impatiens; they're nearly full shade."
Also consider factors such as colors, fragrance, height and hardiness.
Geraniums give off a delicious scent. Marigolds produce a natural pheromone that repels pests, making it an excellent companion plant to vegetables. Snapdragons get tall, Lantana, salvia, and angelonia weather hot conditions well.
When you're at a nursery, look for plants with new growth and healthy leaf structure. You want the plant that's the least stressed out. Bigger isn't always better; you want the plant to do some growing once it gets home.
Don't overbuy. Better to start out with a few and add a couple more than to buy a lot and shove them all together.
Prepare the bed, plants
In the same vein, don't crowd your plants. "People tend to crowd things because they look small when you buy them but they really will grow to the size the tag says," Marden said.
Plants like well drained soil. That may mean adding something to the soil, such as perlite, or even removing the poor soil and replacing the top four to six inches of the bed with a more desirable soil. Add some good organic matter, whether compost, manure or even just soil conditioner. "The more organic matter you add to your soil, the better off your plants are going to be." Marden said.
When you remove the plants from their container, it's okay to gently untangle the roots- but keep the main clump if soil intact.
"That's it's home," Herring says. "That's the heart of the plant . You want to keep that."
Herring will poke a small space at the bottom of the soil clump and pop in some compost before planting it three to five inches deep into the ground, depending on how big the plant is.
Caring for your bed
It's just as easy to overwater as it is to underwater. Know how much your plants need. Water at the base of the plant; too much water on the leaves can stress some plants.
Give the plants a few days to settle into their new home. Then you can return and shape them up. Don't be afraid to prune them down if they get too busy. Pinch spent flowers off as needed.
Feed your plants. This is especially true if they're in containers. Marden prefers an all natural fertilizer, which means it won't burn the plant, called Flower-tone made by Espoma. It's a slow release fertilizer that you can use once every four to six weeks.
