In the spring, the garden wakes up slowly, then all at once.

And once it does, it’s hard to keep track of all the activity.

As we enter the growing season, let’s look beyond spring’s profusion of blooms, and plan for a garden that offers year-round beauty.

Creating a plan

The best way to assess your garden for multi-season interest is to take photos of it in every season. That way you can identify any gaps or opportunities to enhance the current landscape.

From there, you can create a multi-season garden plan.

Last year, I tackled an overgrown, poison-ivy infested hill in our yard. My goals were three-fold:

1. Create an abundant landscape for pollinators

2. Use plants that require little maintenance

3. Establish interest through the seasons

To visualize what the hillside would look like, I created a visual plan for each season.

I chose varieties of plants with different bloom times, colors, and textures to ensure there was something to look at throughout the year.

Start with structure

Structure refers to the base layer of your garden. It’s the foundation upon which everything else rests, and without it, your garden can feel disjointed and chaotic.

Evergreens are a great starting point, as they provide a year-round framework. This could include small trees, tall hedges, mid-sized shrubs or low groundcovers.

These additions are exceptionally important in the barren winter landscape, providing interest while the rest of the garden sleeps.

Beyond evergreens, permanent fixtures like ornamental trees and shrubs help the garden take shape.

Add seasonal color and texture

Layering trees, shrubs, perennial and annual flowers creates a continuous firework show of color and texture.

There’s no shortage of plants that thrive in every season, and which plants those are will change depending on your light conditions and gardening zone.

But here are a few favorites, based on my own garden, for each season.

Spring

A layer of spring bulbs like daffodils, hyacinths and tulips are among the first to greet us in the spring, providing the year’s first big splashes of color.

Garden trees, including redbuds, serviceberries and flowering dogwoods, are next to shine, bursting with prolific clusters of small flowers.

Around the same time, the rhododendron and azalea shrubs begin to bud, eventually followed by the intoxicating fragrance of lilac bushes and the all-too-short blooms of the peonies.

Summer

Summer is really a time for annuals to shine, as many flower from spring to the first frost of fall. Petunias, zinnias and wishbone flowers cluster in vibrant patches of color throughout my garden, filling in the spaces between perennials.

The steadfast perennials step in and out throughout the season, but catmint, butterfly bushes and shrub roses provide consistent color throughout the summer.

Fall

As summer annuals continue to bloom, the autumn sees dahlias erupting in a gorgeous array of shapes, sizes and colors.

Around the same time, hydrangeas of all varieties are picking up speed, gracing the garden with cotton candy puffs of blues and pinks and purples.

As we inch closer to winter, perennial asters and chrysanthemums make their yearly appearance, contrasted against the vibrant fall foliage of the Japanese maples and Brandywine viburnum.

Winter

When the first frost comes in, the annuals fizzle out. What remains are our faithful evergreens.

Modest in any other season, the quiet Wichita blue junipers, lime green boxwoods and the deep forest-green leaves of the rhododendrons now take center stage.

The berries of the Winterberry hollies add a much-revered sprinkle of cherry-red, while the red twig dogwood creates interest with its bare, crimson stems.

As the season inches toward spring yet again, perennial hellebores, snowdrops and crocus are the first flowers to shake the garden from its winter slumber.

And the show begins again.

🔮 What I’m experimenting with

I’m VERY excited to share that I’ve just added a glossary to the Garden People website! 🥳 There are so many garden terms that are easy to take for granted, so I hope you find this useful. I’ll be continuing to add to and expand it—if you have any suggestions please let me know!

🌸 Flower I’m admiring

The lilacs, of course. One of my favorite scents in all the gardening world. Some lilac shrubs can grow quite tall and unruly if not tended to, but I grow Dwarf Korean lilac shrubs—which stay nice and compact!

🍄 What I’m inspired by

The paintings of John William Waterhouse. One of my very favorite painters, Waterhouse seemed to love the garden as much as we do, with flowers taking center stage in many of his paintings. Here are a few of my favorites:

If I had to choose one garden star for every season, I think I’d pick: lilacs in spring, roses in summer, hydrangeas in fall and boxwoods in winter (all shrubs, how about it). Reply and tell me your seasonal faves!

xx

Courtney