TRIED AND TRUE
Summer’s arrival brings so many of my favorite things. Warm sunshine, boat time, barefoot walking, garden tomatoes and pool floating to name a few. It’s also the season I love to just sit in our garden and admire it watching it do its thing. I am often amazed at how beautifully it performs with the amount of care it receives. For example, we don’t have irrigation and hand water only to establish new plants. We tend to be of the less is more philosophy when it comes to care. I don’t want to be a slave to it. But I do want it to be beautiful! This means certain species are better suited for our garden and here I’ll share my favorites.
Yarrow:
Bringing rosey pink blooms to our garden in summer, Achillea millefolium ‘Oertel’s Rose’ thrives in well-drained soil and full sun. It self-seeds abundantly which is quite evident in our garden where it’s nearly taken over in groundcover fashion. This makes for a great natural competitor to weeds and unwanted species. Yarrow comes in many different varieties of color white, yellow and red. It’s also a long-lasting cut flower to bring inside and enjoy up close.
Allium:
With equally showy foliage and flowers this easy perennial looks great even before it blooms. Early in the season they emerge with straplike leaves in a tidy clump then globe-shaped flowers make their entrance late summer dancing atop the foliage. Their onion smell deters critters like deer and rabbits from munching. While its nectar-rich flowers attract pollinators and beneficial insects. We have spring blooming Allium ‘Globemaster’ bulbs in our garden as well as herbaceous perennial Allium ‘Millenium’.
Butterfly Milkweed:
Like its name implies, this native butterfly magnet explodes tufts of bright orange in our front beds come June. Asclepias tuberosa, flowers provide nectar for many pollinators including hummingbirds. The monarch butterfly larvae also feed on their leaves. It took a couple of years to establish in our garden, but with a little patience it settled in quite comfortably. It is drought tolerant and low browse risk for deer.
Catmint:
Blooming violet stalks from May to September Nepeta x faassenii ‘Junior Walker’ borders the beds in the front of our home. When in bloom you can hear it ‘buzzing’ from the pollinators that feed on it. It contains the natural compound nepetalactone proven to effectively repel mosquitoes and acts as a powerful irritant to ticks. Deer tend to leave it alone as well making it a low browse risk option for gardens with deer visitors. It prefers well drained soil and withstands drought.
Autumn Moor Grass:
I’ve been in love with Seslaria autumnalis for years now. If you were to pick one of the classic four temperaments to describe it, I think it would be phlegmatic. Autumn Moor Grass is calm cool and collected. It’s happy in full sun. It’s happy in moderate shade. It doesn’t get stressed out in times of drought. It is simply one of the most reliable plants I have ever used. It looks amazing in mass and plays nicely in a matrix planting keeping it’s clumped, tidy shape.
Sometimes the best garden performers are often the ones that thrive with the least amount of fuss. I love that irony! This list of perennials helps make my garden a delight through the summer months. Perhaps you’ll find joy in trying out one or two in your own spaces.