Creating Year Round Beauty

Use trees, shrubs and evergreens to add year round interest to your flowerbeds. These plants are the bones of the landscape and your gardens.

Dwarf conifers are perfect for smaller landscapes and planting beds. Their texture and year round greenery make a nice background for blossoms and ornamental grasses and can carry the show during the dormant season.

Small scale trees and ornamental shrubs provide flowers, fall color, attractive bark and structure. Plus surrounding them with a bed or perennials improves their growing conditions and reduces your time spent mowing and trimming.

Use a combination of annuals, bulbs, perennials, trees and shrubs. Add a groundcover or repeat textures and colors to create a unified look.

If this seems overwhelming, start simple. Select a small tree, dwarf conifer or ornamental shrub you like and build a garden around it.

A bit more information: Reduce back breaking digging and damage to tree roots by setting containers of annuals in your tree and shrub beds. A pot of Swiss chard and pansies set in a planting bed can add color to the spring and fall landscapes. Taller plants such as canna, Gartenmeister fuchsia, and fountain grass can add texture and vertical interest to the summer garden. Perennials can take on a whole new dimension when potted and placed in a bed of groundcover, shrubs of mixed plantings.