Last Updated on November 14, 2018 by Kimberly Crawford
A simple How-To tutorial on creating a beautiful perennial garden that is gorgeous in every season!
Imagine seeing your garden in a different light. Instead of cold days with only snow and ice; you see transformed → your little plot of Heaven. This is the Four Seasons Garden …
A Four Seasons Garden is not just a place for blooms; the foliage and interesting shapes of limbs and gnarled exposed roots all add to the beauty of the seasons!
Four Seasons Flowers Good in Spring/Summer/Fall/Winter
#1. Sedum acre
#2. Sedum repustre ‘Angelina’
#3. Showy Stonecrop ‘Autumn Joy’
#4. Privet Ligustrum sinense & Ligustrum lucidum
#5. Corylus avellana ‘Contorta’
#6. Mosses (various kinds)
#7. Trumpet Vine Campsis radicans
Four Seasons Flowers Good in Spring/Summer
#1. Trillium cuneatum “Sweet Betsy”
#2. Southern Blue Flag Iris Iris virginica var. shrevei
#3. Bearded Iris Iris
#4. Tulip Poplar Liriodendron tulipifera
Four Seasons Flowers Good in Spring/Summer/Fall
#1. Mugwort
#2. Catnip Nepeta cataria
#3. Bee Balm
#4. Yarrow Achillea millefolium
#5. Violets ‘Sweet Violets’ Viola sororia
#6. Star of Bethlehem Lilies Ornithogalum umbellatum
Four Seasons Flowers Good in Summer/Fall
#1. Daisies
#2. Tiger Lilies
#3. Chrysanthemum Chrysanthemum x grandiflorum
Note: These are just a few of the plants one can use to create a glorious Four Seasons Garden!
When planning a ‘Four Seasons Garden’ one should stagger their plantings so every species has a chance to shine at the appropriate times. For optimal color and texture, carefully set out spring flowering bulbs approximately one week apart. This extends their blooming season.
In the winter time when no flowers are blooming; it is up to the trees and shrubs and spent blooms to ease the winter doldrums. By planting a few species with interesting bark and limbs a person can easily add character to an otherwise barren landscape.
A frozen pond can be livened up by placing a fallen limb across the ice; as well as leaving the blooms on some plants when you would normally remove them. This works for most gardens in general. When snow falls on the old blooms it creates beautiful shadows and allows the light to play off all that white. When spring comes you can easily remove the spent blossoms.
Rocks, chairs, arbors, and many other permanent landscaping features add a lot of interest in a winter garden. It is like the area is whispering ‘I’m waiting for spring’. Now may be a good time to invest in some of those pretty fake flowers!
Some Spring flowering plants can be coached to bloom for longer periods of time with careful mulching and water. Offering shade during hot days can extend their blooming season a bit.
Trimming off fading flowers throughout the growing season also helps in extending bloom times. You will get bigger, better flowers in more mass as well!
Adding a wreath of colorful gourds, berries and leaves not only adds interest; it also provides well needed food for various birds and mammals.
Things to Try in a Four Seasons Garden
- Bridges, benches, arbors, and any other interesting garden additions.
- Try adding an outdoor safe painting or two!
- Birds and other wildlife are the true living flowers of any garden; don’t forget to set up lots of feeders and water stations!
- Keep it clean in a natural way; leave some leaves and old blooms, and not messy garden garbage!
- Leave out a handful of colorful garden decorations in the winter time.
