Jeff Ray's Gardening 101 takes a look at the delicate and special relationship of annual-perennial combinations... with one taking center stage and another being a beautiful backup dancer.
- The primary mission in my backyard is growing edibles. This is a rather unitarian approach I know; I see land and my instinct is to see purpose. What can you do with it? In the first stages of my ever-evolving quarter-acre, I shunned the luxury of flowers. I turned my back to beauty to squeeze out baskets of peppers, figs, herbs and blackberries .
Then a moment of epiphany while touring an organic vineyard in the Simi valley of California. A well-planned array of flowering plants could produce higher insect counts. While logic would say that is a bad thing for a garden full of soon-to-be-picked food; the heavy hand of Mother Nature's is one of balance. More insects mean a better chance that the pest that shows up in your kale will also have a mortal enemy show up as well. More flowers, turns out, is a good thing.
So I did the same in my garden. My flower collection is basically an expanded butterfly garden. The primary players are perennials- you buy them once and know what color you get every year and when. But in front of these perennials, I usually keep a small space for annuals to serve as an accent and working experiment. And honestly, to keep things from getting a little dull.
You should know that I am rather judicious with annuals. I'm not preparing for a visit from the Queen, I'm merely planting for my own tastes and my tastes are a little stingy. Annuals are expensive and can be water intensive. I'm only usually planting annuals in a few key spots like near the front door or at a turn into a gate for example. Just a few spots where some bright color keeps the overall effect rather lively.
So every growing season I'm rotating out a small company of visiting annuals to serve as foreground to my steadfast perennials.Always in search of some new ideas, I visited Jennifer Hatalski at locally owned Calloway Nursery in Fort Worth for some advice. Jennifer is a horticulturist by training who serves as the marketing director for the chain. I couldn't fit all the annual/perennial combinations she showed me into one story but listed them all below.
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