When designing a perennial border, keep in mind each plant's growth habit, branching pattern, and leaf shape. Large, solid leaves command attention and visually make a space seem smaller. In contrast, fine, delicate foliage seems to recede, creating a more open, spacious feeling. Grassy or swordlike blades add striking vertical lines.

When combined, this patchwork of varied plant shapes gives a garden depth as light and shadow play across the greenery. A garden with great texture is eye-catching, even when no flowers are in bloom. Explore the plants and design details behind this sunny perennial border created by Kansas gardener Joyce Householder.

Love this garden? Read the full feature!

Create a terraced landscape to showcase perennials

Terracing on this slope helps to slow rainwater runoff and control erosion in Joyce's garden. The added benefit is a better view of the gorgeous assortment of perennials that grow here in full sun, shown above in late spring. Although flowers come and go through spring and summer, the constant is the contrast between the strappy bearded iris foliage, velvety Russian sage leaves and solid mounds of false indigo.

Plant care tips

• To encourage a light rebloom, cut back salvia, spike speedwell, bearded penstemon and catmint after the first flush of flowers fade.
• Snip faded iris blossoms to keep the plant tidy, but let spent false indigo flowers form black seed pods that look intriguing through fall and winter.

Fall cleanup

• Most of these perennials die back to the ground in winter, so cut off dead foliage in late fall after a frost or in early spring as new growth begins.
• Russian sage stems can stay standing all winter to provide structure. It’s semi-evergreen in warmer hardiness zones. In colder zones where it dies back, trim to 8 to 12 inches tall in spring as new leaves emerge near the base.

You Might Also Like:
How to Divide Bearded Iris
Your Guide to Deadheading 50+ Perennials
The Garden Idea Book

Sunny perennial border plant list

A) Salvia (Salvia nemorosa ‘Caradonna’)
Perennial; deep blue-violet flower spikes from early summer through fall above mounds of rough leaves; full sun; 18 to 20 in. tall, 12 to 18 in. wide; cold hardy in USDA zones 4 to 9

B) Speedwell (Veronica ‘Lavender Lightsaber’)
Perennial; lavender flower spikes in early to midsummer rise above clumps of medium green foliage; full sun; 28 to 30 in. tall, 18 to 20 in. wide; cold hardy in USDA zones 4 to 8

C) False indigo (Baptisia ‘Sparkling Sapphires’)
Perennial; violet-blue flowers in late spring to early summer on upright, blue-green foliage; full sun to part shade; 30 to 36 in. tall and wide; cold hardy in USDA zones 4 to 9

D) Bearded penstemon (Penstemon barbatus ‘Jingle Bells’)
Perennial; red-orange tubular flowers on long stems from late spring to early summer above clumps of basal foliage; full sun; 18 to 36 in. tall, 12 to 24 in. wide; cold hardy in USDA zones 4 to 9

E) Russian sage (Perovskia atriplicifolia)
Perennial; tiny lavender-blue flowers line tall stems of silver, fernlike foliage from mid- to late summer; full sun; 2 to 5 ft. tall, 2 to 4 ft. wide; cold hardy in USDA zones 5 to 9

F) Lanceleaf coreopsis (Coreopsis lanceolata)
Perennial; yellow daisies on long, thin stems from late spring to early summer stretch above a rosette of narrow, lobed leaves; full sun; 12 to 18 in. tall, 15 to 18 in. wide; cold hardy in USDA zones 4 to 9

G) Bearded iris (Iris ‘Obsidian’)
Perennial; deep purple to black flowers in mid- to late spring above swordlike leaves; full sun to part shade; 30 to 33 in. tall, 18 to 24 in. wide; cold hardy in USDA zones 4 to 9

H) Catmint (Nepeta faassenii ‘Cat’s Meow’)
Perennial; blue-purple flowers in late spring to early summer on mounds of dusky green foliage; full sun to part shade; 17 to 20 in. tall, 24 to 36 in. wide; cold hardy in USDA zones 4 to 9

You Might Also Like:
Subscribe to Garden Gate Magazine
Watch Our Talk & Tour Series on YouTube
See More No-Fail Plant Combos

Tips for creating a shade garden oasis

When Joyce Hannaford and her husband, Charlie, moved into their Massachusetts home 23 years ago, there wasn’t much there — Joyce felt like they were living in a fishbowl on their corner lot. So they added a privacy fence and planted lots of trees around the yard. It took some time, but now they have a sheltered place just outside their back door to eat dinner with friends or just relax alone.

Joyce has two brick patios connected by stone steps. The organic shape and color of the stone repeats the color and texture of the nearby raised beds and adds variety to all the bricks. Joyce calls the small patio with blue chairs the cocktail patio and the larger one the dining patio. Both are surrounded by lush shade-tolerant plantings.

Want to watch a tour of the entire garden? Check out the video above or watch the Talk & Tour on our YouTube channel here.

Manage trees

After 18 years, the roots of the multistemmed river birch next to the patio were pushing up the stone edging and the patio bricks. Plus the canopy had filled in and changed the area from dappled to dense shade. Joyce tried making adjustments to the border and carefully working around the main roots, but it just got too difficult to grow anything. So, reluctantly, she had it removed.

Adjusting to changing light conditions

The first year, the hakonechloa, ferns, hostas and other shade plants developed crispy leaf edges and looked a little faded in the extra sunlight. But the next season they bounced back, and with a little more light, it was easier to grow impatiens and other flowering plants that do best with a bit of light from morning sun or dappled shade.

Shade creates privacy

With a fence along the property line, trees screening the view of other nearby neighbors and layers of shrubs and perennials to muffle any sounds, this shady patio has a cozy, intimate feel.

You Might Also Like:
How Can I Get a Stump to Rot Quickly?
DIY Privacy Panel Project
Watch Our Talk & Tour Video Playlist

Enjoy the advantages of shade gardening

Joyce has discovered one big plus to gardening in shade — it’s a lot easier to move plants. The sun isn’t harsh, and the temperature here is a bit cooler. So if a plant isn’t doing well in an area, she moves it in the morning, waters a bit more than the other plants, and it settles in quickly.

Add a water feature

This stone recirculating fountain sits next to the dining patio and is surrounded by a collection of texture-rich shade perennials. Adding a water feature to this part of the garden provides both a focal point for the dining area and a source of soothing sound. Flowing water makes sitting in shade even more relaxing and helps mask sounds from nearby neighbors.

Winter care for outdoor water features

In her USDA zone 6 garden, Joyce has to drain the basin and put a stone cap on top of the fountain to prevent snow and debris from collecting there. Most winters she tops it off with a container full of greenery and colorful stems to create an enjoyable view from inside her warm home.

You Might Also Like:
Tips to Create Wildlife-Friendly Water Features With Escape Ramps
How to Create a Sensory Garden
Subscribe to Garden Gate Magazine!

Creating a flower-filled front yard from scratch

When Ellen Goldfarb first moved to her New Jersey home 40 years ago, the front yard was all lawn, with a few standard-issue shrubs skirting the foundation. Soon after, she removed many of those original shrubs and planted a cottage border along the driveway. Watch the Talk & Tour video above to hear more about how this front yard makeover came together.

Over the years, she added more garden space and removed lawn while establishing What’s Blooming?, a garden design and maintenance firm that she now runs with her daughter, Tracy Buttrick. Eventually, she says, “I was doing all of these nice gardens for people, and I wanted what they had.”

Front yard before

A sloping front lawn with a foundation planting of yews (Taxus spp. and hybrids), rhododendrons (Rhododendron hybrids), Japanese pieris (Pieris japonica) and other shrubs provided the blank slate for the front-yard showpiece you see below.

You Can Also Read this Feature on Ellen's Garden in the Summer issue of Garden Gate magazine!

Starting from scratch

So to divide up the 56-foot-wide by 35-foot-deep front yard and manage the slope better, Ellen had a curving 1-foot-tall stone wall installed that effectively created three distinct terraces. Then she converted the front yard into a garden filled with a variety of Japanese maples (Acer palmatum), boxwoods (Buxus spp. and hybrids), hydrangeas (Hydrangea spp. and hybrids) and other flowering shrubs and perennials, both for her own enjoyment and to showcase her work.

Creating levels in the garden

She likes to think of the levels that this change created as stages that allow the plants to show off better. However, even though the garden is full of plants, she takes care to position them so that the contrasting stone shows through here and there, even during the growing season, utilizing plants pruned into standards and a mix of different shapes and textures.

Want Ellen's List of Deer-Resistant Plants?

Download Ellen's Deer-Resistant Plant Palette

Smart plant choices

While she was initially drawn to flowers (and still is), Ellen recognizes that every good design needs structure. “I like organized chaos,” she says. Tidy ‘Wintergreen’ Korean boxwoods (Buxus sinica var. insularis), Japanese plum yew (Cephalotaxus harringtonia) and deodar cedar (Cedrus deodara) all frame exuberant plantings on each terrace. Although Ellen starts with a list of flowers that she wants to include in a new garden design, when it’s time to put the design to paper, she always places the evergreens and other structural plants first.

Everything in the garden shouldn’t be a diva, the way the tall urn, yellow standard lantana or stately ‘Seiryu’ Japanese maple (Acer palmatum) are in the photo above. You need plenty of supporting cast too. Some favorites for these roles include black-eyed Susans (Rudbeckia fulgida sullivantii), ornamental grasses, hydrangeas and ostrich ferns (Matteuccia struthiopteris). She frequently turns to chartreuse-foliaged plants, such as hakonechloa (Matteuccia struthiopteris), as supporting cast members. She says, “Chartreuse just makes everything else look better.”

You Might Also Like:
How to Add Structure to Your Garden
7 Ways to Use Conifers in Garden Design
Portland Talk & Tour: Dwarf Conifers and Japanes Maples

Dealing with the deer problem

Walking through the neighborhood, you might not suspect that deer would be such voracious pests. But in recent years she’s had to work hard to keep them from eating her garden and her clients’ gardens as well. After much experimentation (and heartbreak), she’s discovered that evergreen shrubs like boxwoods, many junipers (Juniperus spp. and hybrids) and cherry laurel (Prunus laurocerasus) tend to be deer-proof. She’s also had relatively good luck with bigleaf hydrangeas and roses like those in the Drift series.

But some years are worse than others. Last year a persistent doe and her two fawns even ate the black-eyed Susans and heleniums, which they usually avoid. Find a few of Ellen’s favorite deer-resistant flowers below.

Site deer-susceptible plants in protected areas

Over the years, she’s moved the most susceptible plants to more protected spots, such as the windowbox full of lettuce in the photo above, and many of her beloved David Austin^® roses, which she has relocated to the fenced-in backyard. But nothing is foolproof, so in addition, she has a local deer-control service spray their proprietary solution at least once a month during the growing season. She follows up with a spray bottle every week or so, covering tender new growth. 

Ellen’s favorite easy-care shrub roses

• Drift^®
• Knock Out^®
• Julia Child
• Easy Does It^®
• Bonica^® (she's had one for 40 years!)

You Might Also Like:
Deter Deer in the Garden With These Products
Shrub Roses for Tricky Spots in the Garden
Deer-Resistant Garden Layout
Subscribe to Garden Gate magazine

6 of Ellen’s Favorite Deer-Resistant Flowers

Want to see a bigger list of deer-resistant perennials, shrubs and trees? Download the full guide from Ellen here. Download her Deer-Resistant Plant Palette PDF here.

1. Helenium (Helenium spp. and hybrids)

These long-blooming perennials tolerate heavy soil well.

• Type: Perennial
  
• Blooms: Yellow, orange or red daisy-shaped flowers summer to fall
  
• Light: Full sun to part shade
  
• Soil: Average to wet well-drained soil
  
• Size: 2 to 5 ft. tall, 2 to 3 ft. wide
  
• Hardiness: Cold hardy in USDA zones 3 to 9

2. Calamint (Calamintha nepeta)

The white, frothy flowers of well-behaved ‘Montrose White’ calamint complement so many plants and bloom from May through frost.

• Type: Perennial
  
• Blooms: Tiny white flowers late spring through frost
  
• Light: Full sun
  
• Soil: Dry to average well-drained soil
  
• Size: 12 to 24 in. tall and wide
  
• Hardiness: Cold hardy in USDA zones 5 to 9

3. Allium (Allium hybrids)

After the jaunty purple lollipop blooms of ‘Millenium’ allium have faded, the dried seedheads still have garden interest.

• Type: Perennial
  
• Blooms: Small globe-shaped lavender or white blooms in early to late summer
  
• Light: Full sun
  
• Soil: Dry to medium well-drained soil
  
• Size: 12 to 18 in. tall and wide
  
• Hardiness: Cold hardy in USDA zones 4 to 8

4. Angelonia (Angelonia angustifolia)

These flowers are everblooming, never reseed, seldom fall over and perform well with or without deadheading.

• Type: Tender perennial (usually grown as an annual)
  
• Blooms: Spiky white, purple, pink or raspberry blooms from spring through fall
  
• Light: Full sun
  
• Soil: Moist, well-drained soil
  
• Size: 12 to 30 in. tall, 10 to 18 in. wide
  
• Hardiness: Cold hardy in USDA zones 9 to 11

5. Salvia (Salvia spp. and hybrids)

Hummingbirds adore the tubular flowers of salvia, especially the red varieties.

• Type: Tender perennial (usually grown as an annual)
  
• Blooms: Blue, purple, white, red or pink flowers in summer through fall
  
• Light: Full sun to part shade
  
• Soil: Moist, well-drained soil
  
• Size: 2 to 5 ft. tall and wide
  
• Hardiness: Cold hardy in USDA zones 7 to 11

6. Lantana (Lantana camara)

Reliable nonstop bloomers and standard forms provide height in just the right spots.

• Type: Tender perennial (usually grown as an annual)
  
• Blooms: Small white, yellow, pink, purple, red or orange flowers from spring through fall
  
• Light: Full sun
  
• Soil: Dry to medium well-drained soil
  
• Size: 1 to 4 ft. tall, 1 to 3 ft. wide
  
• Hardiness: Cold hardy in USDA zones 9 to 11

Subscribe to Garden Gate Magazine!

Reader Garden Award 2026 Runner-Up:

Congratulations to Shelly (Bell) Schnettler from Essexville, Michigan!

Shelly was born with a love for the land. Growing up on her family’s century farm in Michigan, she was eagerly learning to drive farm equipment while most kids were riding bikes. Her love of agriculture evolved into a passion for gardening, which led to her receiving local recognition and awards for her lively home landscape.

A garden for celebrating

A vibrant tapestry of blooms from flowering shrubs, perennials and annuals welcomed garden visitors with color and creativity, and the space became so special that three of her children decided to get married in the garden. A photo from one of these weddings can be seen above, the large bed creating a colorful backdrop for the ceremony.

Stay tuned! We'll be announcing more Reader Garden Award winners for 2026 in our Fall and Winter issue of Garden Gate magazine!

Honoring a lifelong love of gardening

Shelly died unexpectedly in November 2024 but left behind a legacy of love for plants that is still felt in her family and community. In honor of Shelly’s passion for gardening and agriculture, her family established the Bell Family Memorial Scholarship. The scholarship, Farm Girls for a Better Tomorrow, provides financial support to young women pursuing agriculture through formal education, homesteading projects or community leadership, and aims to preserve farming traditions and champion regenerative practices for future generations of farm girls like Shelly.

You can donate to Farm Girls for a Better Tomorrow here: bellfamilyfarmestate.com/donate

Thanks to Milwaukee^® Tool for providing a pruning tools package valued over $100 as our runner-up prize.

Enter your garden for a chance to be one of next year’s winners!

For details on entry guidelines for submitting your garden in the Garden Gate Reader Garden Award, click here.

See Our Previous Year's Reader Garden Award Winners:

• 2025: The Giving Garden, Sue & Bob Olson of Minnesota
• 2024: Multiseason Beauty With Perennials & Flowering Trees
  
• 2023: Grand Garden Experiment
  
• 2022: Charming Southern Backyard Garden
  
• 2021: Beautiful Hillside Garden
  
• 2020: Urban Garden Retreat
  

Cultivating a tropical garden oasis

The time spent gardening with his grandmother, Olive, when he was a child inspired Deronis Cooper to pick up a trowel again shortly after he bought his townhome 17 years ago. Not only has he found the work of planning, planting and watering the garden satisfying, but being surrounded by beautiful flowers and foliage is great stress relief from his job as a Chicago police officer. Watch our Talk & Tour video with Deronis above and keep reading to learn more about this impressive garden!

A garden for everyone to enjoy

You can’t miss Deronis’ garden when you’re walking or driving down the block. He designs the space so that the bright colors and bold foliage that you see in the photos burst over and around the privacy fence, giving him, his neighbors and passersby plenty of enjoyment. The exuberant plantings often draw people over for a closer look, and Deronis is happy to give an impromptu tour and share his garden tips. He even connects and encourages others through social media. Known as “Grandma's Gardener,” he has gained quite a following and was even featured on the local news. Be sure to folling him on Instagram @grandmas_gardener to see what he's planting in the garden this season.

Now let’s take a look at this amazing space and find out what Deronis did to create a tropical oasis in the heart of the Midwest.

You Might Also Like:
Rooftop Gardening Tips From an Urban Gardener
Best Foliage Plants for Containers
Catch Deronis on the News in Chicago!

Impressive front yard foliage

The wrought iron fence along the front yard in the photo above provides a sneak peek into the garden. But a colorful wall of coleus (Coleus scutellarioides), sweet potato vines (Ipomoea batatas), palms (Chamaedorea spp.) and Red Abyssinian bananas (Ensete maurelli) give Deronis a bit of privacy. The screening works so well that last summer a friend walked by and didn’t offer his typical “Hey, how’s it going?” even though Deronis was sitting in his usual spot.

An urban garden packed with curb appeal

To find bargains that stretch his gardening budget, Deronis often shops Facebook Marketplace. That’s where he found five 5-foot-long and 2-foot-tall rectangular metal storage boxes that he upcycled into the planters that sit behind the wrought iron fence. He brought them home, spray-painted them black and drilled holes in the bottom with a metal drill bit for drainage.

When it’s time to plant these containers in spring, Deronis starts working inside the yard, then moves out to the sidewalk and reaches through the pickets to plant so there’s plenty of street-facing color too. The result is the luxurious growth you see above that stops so many passersby in their tracks.

Read the Full Feature in Our New Summer Issue – Buy Your Copy Here!

Impressive wine barrel containers anchor the corner of the lot

At the corner the wrought iron changes to a wooden privacy fence, and that transition is marked by the two 59-gallon barrels you see above. Though they’re hidden, you can’t miss the explosion of color they provide. Elephant ear (Colocasia spp. and hybrids), coleus and sweet potato vine are regular players, but Deronis likes to mix up the planting each year depending on what inspires him at the garden center. Last year’s combination also included purple fountain grass (Pennisetum setaceum) and spider flower (Cleome hassleriana).

Large elephant ears and bananas keep the design proportional in this 35-inch-tall barrel (elephant ears regularly reach 7 feet tall in Deronis’ garden, and the biggest banana he grew was 14 feet.) While these two plants provide the height, a skirt of vigorous sweet potato vine balances them out. To keep plants growing strong, Deronis adds Osmocote^® slow-release fertilizer to the potting mix at planting and applies liquid plant food using the Miracle-Gro^® Garden Feeder hose attachment most every week.

Overwintering in place

At 115 pounds, the barrels are too awkward to move indoors over the winter, so he leaves them out, even though they’re unsealed oak. Because of year-round exposure, the last one required replacing after about eight years.

Keeping planters watered

Deronis says that keeping up with watering is his biggest challenge throughout the yard but especially for these barrels. On hot summer days he may drag the hose and watering wand over there two or three times a day to maintain its head-turning curb appeal.

You Might Also Like:
See Deronis' Winning Wine Barrel Planter in Our Container Challenge!
Tips for Overwintering Cannas
8 Tropical Bulbs for the Garden
Container Gardening Made Easy

Layer plants for a lush tropical garden look

One of the first projects Deronis tackled when he started gardening was the 32-foot-long by 3-foot-deep raised bed that sits next to the townhome. It was initially filled with a mix of topsoil and peat moss for drainage. Now the bed gets topped off annually with a few bags of Miracle-Gro garden soil.

Mix foliage shapes for texture and interest all season

Since most of the plants in Deronis’ planting palette are foliage focused, he uses a variety of leaf sizes, shapes and colors to keep the interest high. Broad elephant ears (Colocasia spp. and hybrids), lacy palms and elongated bananas provide an engaging canopy for colorful coleus, palmate castor bean plant (Ricinus communis) and sweet potato vine.

A love for container gardens

Deronis was enamored by the amazing planters the city of Chicago sets up downtown every year so he decided to plant up a few of his own. One container led to another and another. Now all of the plants outside of the initial raised bed are growing in containers.

The pots come in a variety of shapes, sizes and materials. Many have bold colors to keep with the tropical theme and provide interest early in the season. Even in summer when plants are mature, you’ll catch a glimpse of a container.

Container tip: Easy color swap

If Deronis finds a container he likes but the color isn’t a good fit, he uses spray paint to get just the right shade that pops in his garden. Rust-Oleum^® is his favorite brand because it holds up to rain, snow and sunlight, there’s a large variety of colors to choose from and some have a dial on the nozzle so you can spray at different angles.

Create layers for interesting garden design

To make sure he can see and appreciate every specimen in the containers, Deronis uses the thriller, filler, spiller formula at planting time. In his designs, he used the tall elephant ear as the thriller that steps down to the midsized coleus filler and finally a skirt of sweet potato vine spills down to the ground.

You can see this layered effect from a distance in the photo above. Tall containers with thrillers are in back and shorter ones are up front. Filling every level with plant-packed containers is a great way to get that lush look so typical of tropical garden design.

Add plants with height for privacy

For extra screening and planting space, Deronis secured 36-inch-long by 9-inch-tall windowboxes along the top rail of the privacy fence. You can see the placement more clearly in the small “before” photo. They also help blend the tallest tropicals into the planting and further obscure the edge of the fence. When you can’t quite tell where the edge of the fence is, the yard feels larger too.

The windowboxes can be a challenge to keep watered, especially as summer heats up, but Deronis is out with the hose daily making sure they stay in tip-top shape.

You Might Also Like:
Create Bold Conatiners with Tropical Plants
4-Season Windowbox Design and Plant List
Watch Our Container Gardening Videos on YouTube
Subscribe to Garden Gate magazine

Create a secret tropical garden getaway

As a plant lover, Deronis savors all the variety he finds at the garden center and tries out new plants each year to see if they fit with his tropical mix. If it grows vigorously and can compete with all the other strong growing specimens he’s discovered over the years he’ll grow it again. But having a cohesive look for the yard is also important. To do that, he repeats a few reliable favorites. In addition, Deronis repeats different plants that have similar colors, such as the burgundy coleus with the red ti plant (Cordyline fruticosa) in the photo above, along with other warm-toned coleus varieties with the red-leaf hibiscus (Hibiscus acetosella) and dark foliaged sweet potato vines (Ipomoea batatas) in the photo below.

Create cohesion with repetition of color

Another key to cohesion is the black metal garden furniture. Deronis likes the durability of metal, and the dark color recedes into the background so the garden takes center stage.

More garden room

Expanding up the fire escape was a natural next step for Deronis. Windowboxes and hanging baskets packed with sweet potato vines, petunias (Petunia hybrid), coleus and other finds — you can see how well they cover the structures. The hanging baskets were a challenge at first, but he discovered a helpful solution in “Hanging basket help” below.

Go vertical!

By gardening up the fire escape, Deronis creates even more drama and incorporates the structure into the rest of the garden. An added bonus is that he can hide a lot of tools and materials on ground level behind the dense foliage.

Hanging basket help

To build on the drama that fills the yard below Deronis added windowboxes that straddle the railing on the fire escape. Those did a great job, but he wanted to fill in the gaps on the pickets. Railscapes^™ Plant Clip was the solution. The arms wrap around the basket and each end fits between the pickets so that tension keeps the basket in place and level.

Tropical garden plant care

Foliage plays a starring role in tropical garden design, and there are lots of tender perennials with gorgeous leaves to choose from. Deronis starts shopping for plants in spring when nighttime temperatures are staying around 50 degrees F. That way he doesn’t have to worry about covering plants to avoid frost damage.

He plants the big barrels on the corner first, then fills the large Crescent container in the middle of the yard. A couple of large purple pots by the front door are next, and then he moves on to the rest of the yard. It usually takes him three to four weeks to get the whole garden planted.

Easy-care plantings

Once all the planting is done, care is pretty simple — watering is the biggest job. Though the yard faces west, there’s a mature tree near the front of the yard, and the privacy fence provides some late afternoon shade.

Mixing in a slow-release plant food at planting time ensures the tropicals have plenty of nutrition without a lot of extra effort. Because most of the plants are foliage-focused, there’s no deadheading. Deronis doesn’t mind when a coleus blooms — he leaves it in place, and it becomes another colorful accent for the garden.

To end the season, Deronis gives away his tender plants to the community

By the end of October, short days and cooler temperatures are causing these tender perennials to slow down, so Deronis puts out an all-call on social media for everyone to come and take the plants. He doesn’t have room to overwinter them indoors. More importantly, he likes to encourage other gardeners to try new plants so they can bring some beauty to their own yard and neighborhood.

Like this article? Subscribe for more!

Subscribe to Garden Gate magazine for more inspirational garden tours and design tips delivered every season. Print and digital editions are available, learn more here:

• Get a Print Subscription
• Get a Digital Subscription
• Buy a Single Issue of Garden Gate magazine

Plant this perennial front-yard flower border for bold color every year

If you’re like me, you’re always thinking ahead, no matter what season it is right now. That’s one great thing about gardening: There’s always something new to look forward to!

All the plants in this sunny combo are perennials, so once you get them planted, they’ll show off for years. Maybe you already have some of these varieties and are looking for companion inspiration. Or maybe you’re starting from scratch. No matter how you arrange them, they’ll give you plenty of color and texture while you’re planning for the next season! 

Add energy to an entry garden with these colorful sun-perennials

To make pink and purple blooms pop in a planting, combine them with splashes of white and chartreuse like you see here. Yellow and purple are across from each other on the color wheel, so this combination creates a high-contrast, energetic look for a front entry or sunny pathway.

Plant care tips

The salvia, veronica, betony and geranium will often rebloom if you cut them back by one-third to one-half when the first flush of bloom is over. Even if they don’t rebloom, cutting them back will encourage the foliage to grow in a tidy mound instead of sprawling open at the center.

Lady’s mantle plants also benefit from deadheading after blooming to keep plants tidy and the foliage looking healthy. Lightly shearing back the spirea’s spent blooms will clean it up for summer; it may send out a few new blooms later in the season too.

Another plus to these plants is that all of them attract bees and butterflies. And most are deer resistant, so you shouldn’t find that your plants have been “pruned” by anyone but you!

You Might Also Like:
Subscribe to Garden Gate Magazine for New Plant Combos Every Issue!
How to Design Plant Combinations Like a Pro
3 Ways to Deadhead Perennials

Front-yard flower border plant list

A) Spike speedwellVeronica ‘White Wands’
Perennial; white spikes of flowers from late spring through summer; full sun to part shade; 14 to 16 in. tall, 16 to 20 in. wide; cold hardy in USDA zones 4 to 8

B) Meadow cranesbillGeranium pratense ‘Boom Chocolatta’
Perennial; blue-purple flowers in early to midsummer; full sun to part shade; 24 to 26 in. tall, 28 to 30 in. wide; cold hardy in USDA zones 4 to 8

C) SpireaSpiraea japonica Double Play^® Pink
Shrub; pink flowers from late spring to midsummer; part to full sun; 2 to 3 ft. tall and wide; cold hardy in USDA zones 3 to 9

D) SalviaSalvia nemorosa ‘Violet Profusion’
Perennial; bright purple flowers in late spring and early summer; full sun; 14 to 16 in. tall, 16 to 20 in. wide; cold hardy in USDA zones 3 to 8

E) Lady’s mantleAlchemilla mollis
Perennial; chartreuse flowers in late spring to early summer; full sun to part shade; 10 to 18 in. tall, 18 to 30 in. wide; cold hardy in USDA zones 4 to 8

F) BetonyBetonica officinalis ‘Hummelo’ 
Perennial; rose-purple flowers in late spring to early summer; full sun to part shade; 18 to 24 in. tall and wide; cold hardy in USDA zones 4 to 8

Learn More:
10 Long-Blooming Perennials
Watch Our Gardening Videos on YouTube
The Garden Design Collection

Tips for designing a beautiful entry garden

Your entry garden has a big job to do—it needs to deliver low-maintenance curb appeal all year, greet guests and show off your own unique style. Follow these design tips to help your garden meet all of these goals.

Widen the path

Even if you have a smaller yard, you want a front walk that looks inviting and is easy for visitors to traverse. A smooth surface that’s at least 4 feet wide can do just that. It leaves plenty of room for two people to walk comfortably side by side, and allows enough space for a wheelchair too.

The original front path and steps to the Washington home in the photo above were very narrow and looked out of place with the wide front door and full-length windows flanking it. So one of the first things that landscape designer Stacie Crooks did was widen both the path and the front stoop for a more balanced visual connection as you and visitors go from the outdoors to inside.

The steps are made of ipe, a tropical hardwood that’s super dense, rot- and insect-resistant and lasts for decades. A generous 12-foot-wide Pennsylvania bluestone path connects the entry to the drive and runs along the front of the house.

Add evergreen foliage for four-season interest

With its four-season appeal, evergreen foliage fills the gap between blooms and provides a sense of permanence. Stacie’s rule of thumb for designing borders is to use two-thirds evergreen foliage to one-third deciduous.

Plenty of plants have evergreen foliage in a wide range of colors, shapes and sizes. The texture-rich planting in this zone 8 garden looks good all year thanks to a variety of rhododendrons (Rhododendron spp. and hybrids), ferns and heath (Erica carnea). You could also try low-growing sedges (Carex spp. and hybrids) in green or brown to soften the walkway’s edge or a 4- to 15-foot-tall weeping Norway spruce (Picea abies ‘Pendula’) to draw you toward the door. Though the stately Indian paper birches (Betula utilis subsp. jacquemontii) near the front door don’t have evergreen foliage, the white bark looks fantastic during the gray days of winter.

Don’t crowd the front entry

The front door isn’t a good spot to let your shrubs and perennials outgrow their space. Overgrown plants can be a tripping hazard or a security risk. Choosing dwarf varieties and shrubs that have tidy habits, such as bigleaf hydrangea (Hydrangea macrophylla) or spirea (Spiraea japonica), can provide low-maintenance beauty and structure for a front-yard border. Be sure to site plants so once they reach the mature size, the foliage only overlaps the path by a few inches. And while it’s great to have perennials for flowers and added texture, be sure to keep the shorter ones up front, making them easy to see.

You Might Also Like:
Garden Edging: 4 Regional Pros Weigh In
The Best Plants for a Foundation Planting
Entry Garden Plan Layouts

Entry gardens are a great way bring the house and landscape together

Choosing flowers or foliage that repeat your home’s siding or trim color is one simple solution for a unified look. But if your house has distinctive architectural features, you can accentuate those too. The prairie style home above has a full-length glass front door and row of large windows with a great view of the yard. A line of upright feather reed grass (Calamagrostis x acutiflora) and allium (Allium hybrid) along the front border echoes the repetition on the house. The entry garden doesn’t have to be exactly the same as other parts of the yard, but by repeating a few of the elements from the backyard out front, you can tie the two together.

If Vermont garden designer Erica Bowman is designing a Japanese garden in the back, the front yard will have a foliage-heavy plant palette and an ornament, such as a lantern, to give a hint of what’s to come. Or if the homeowner has a loose native planting, she’ll use many of the same plants in front in a bit more structured way and make sure to add a grouping of colorful wildflowers near the door to draw your eye there.

Design quick tip:

A limited color palette is an easy way to get a pulled-together look. Plus, it helps make choosing the plants easier.

Consider the garden from different views

It’s always a good idea to step back and look at the front yard from different perspectives, such as the sidewalk or across the street. This can help you see where you might need to add height or balance out a larger plant that’s already in place. But not every view of the garden has to be taken in from the street side. What you see from the inside matters too. Wisconsin garden designer Mark Dwyer suggests looking out the front door and windows to imagine what you’d like to see there, such as flowers changing through the seasons or an elegantly shaped Japanese maple (Acer palmatum).

Also, take note of plants that might be encroaching on your view out the picture window or any screening that might be needed. With a full-length glass front door or a large window, you might want to site a tree or shrub so passersby can’t easily see inside at night.

Add sensory elements to your front entry

Once you’ve taken in the views from inside, walk through the front door, paying attention to what you’re experiencing. Would you like more color or a soft grass to run your hands over? This isn’t so much about curb appeal as it is about making your entry an experience you can immerse yourself in every time you pass through it.

Add a focal point

A focal point helps with traffic flow, drawing guests along to their destination. The showy red screen door in the photo above shows you right where to go. A special ornament or a few brightly planted containers can work just as well.

You Might Also Like:
Statement Plants for Your Garden
Tips for Creating a Sensory Garden
Unique Plants + Simple Design

Beautiful & fragrant plants for your front entry garden

Fragrance helps make the path to your front door a journey to enjoy. Whether you want to fill containers or edge a border, the plants below will do the trick!

Reseeding plants is an easy way to get repetition in the garden

See the repeating pools of blue flowers along the spring pathway in the photo above? This repetition has mostly happened naturally as annuals and perennials reseed around the structural trees and shrubs in Ted and Nadine Staunton's Vancouver garden: “I tend to leave most of them unless they’re in the way or impeding another plant. Because it’s such a large garden I don’t have time to manicure every spot.”

Pull volunteers you don’t want

Nadine doesn’t do much deadheading but instead pulls the volunteers that she doesn’t need. She has, however, learned the hard way not to compost plants that have gone to seed, after an unfortunate incident with forget-me-nots. This hasn’t dampened her enthusiasm for these beautiful clouds of blue spring flowers though. Learn more about them and more of her favorite reseeders below.

You Might Also Like:
Tour More of This Vancouver Garden!
Easy Flowers to Grow
This or That: Black-Eyed Susan vs. Purple Coneflower

8 Reseeding plants to fill spaces in the garden

When you have a large property, you need large numbers of plants to fill it up. Reseeders are a good solution if you don’t mind doing some “editing” of unwanted plants every year. Here are a few of Nadine’s favorite species that spread quickly and make a big impact once established. 

1. Lady’s mantle (Alchemilla mollis)

Type: Perennial
Blooms: Clouds of chartreuse blooms in late spring to early summer
Light: Full sun to part shade
Size: 10 to 18 in. tall, 18 to 30 in. wide
Hardiness: Cold hardy in USDA zones 4 to 8

2. Spiderwort (Tradescantia virginiana)

Type: Perennial
Blooms: Clusters of three-petaled purple, pink or white flowers in late spring
Light: Full sun to part shade
Size: 18 to 24 in. tall and wide
Hardiness: Cold hardy in USDA zones 4 to 9

3. Forget-me-not (Myosotis sylvatica)

Type: Perennial
Blooms: Tiny sky-blue flowers in late spring
Light: Full sun to part shade
Size: 6 to 9 in. tall, 6 to 12 in. wide
Hardiness: Cold hardy in USDA zones 3 to 8

4. Serbian bellflower (Campanula poscharskyana)

Type: Perennial
Blooms: Blue star-shaped flowers in spring
Light: Full sun to part shade
Size: 8 to 10 in. tall, 18 to 24 in. wide
Hardiness: Cold hardy in USDA zones 4 to 7

5. Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia spp. and hybrids)

Type: Perennial
Blooms: Golden yellow, daisy-shaped flowers with black centers from midsummer through fall
Light: Full sun to part shade
Size: 2 to 3 ft. tall, 1 to 2 ft. wide
Hardiness: Cold hardy in USDA zones 3 to 8

6. Wild columbine (Aquilegia canadensis)

Type: Perennial
Blooms: Nodding two-tone red and yellow flowers in late spring to early summer
Light: Full sun to part shade
Size: 12 to 36 in. tall, 12 to 18 in. wide
Hardiness: Cold hardy in USDA zones 3 to 8

7. Bachelor’s button (Centaurea cyanus)

Type: Annual
Blooms: Cornflower blue flowers in late spring to early summer
Light: Full sun
Size: 24 to 30 in. tall, 9 to 12 in. wide

8. Spanish bluebells (Hyacinthoides hispanica)

Type: Bulb
Blooms: Pendulous lavender flowers in spring
Light: Full sun to part shade
Size: 12 to 18 in. tall, 3 to 6 in. wide
Hardiness: Cold hardy in USDA zones 4 to 9

You Might Also Like:
Buy the Current Issue of Garden Gate Magazine
Watch Our Videos on YouTube
Travel to Gardens With Us!

Discover a garden oasis in British Columbia

Perched on a hill, Nadine and Ted Staunton’s home and back deck offer a perfect view. Not only do they look over their own garden, but they can also see the woods at the edge of their property, the nearby Fraser River and even the distant Coast Mountains. Sometimes they hear coyotes yipping, watch bald eagles soaring overhead and catch glimpses of black bears lumbering through the trees.

Taming the slope: 20-year evolution of a Zone 8 garden

In a little more than 20 years, they’ve created an engaging landscape on their USDA zone 8, sloping Surrey, British Columbia, backyard. It wasn’t easy to accomplish, but now stone paths meander through terraces of trees, shrubs and perennial flowers interspersed with mossy stones and wooden arbors, pergolas and even a custom-built chapel tucked into the woods. Let’s take a tour of this lovely garden and learn some of the tips that the Stauntons have gathered while establishing it.

You Might Also Like:
Talk & Tour: Beautiful Hillside Garden
Garden Planting for Around a Gazebo
Subscribe to Garden Gate Magazine

The garden’s beginning

When Nadine and Ted were ready to build a home on the L-shaped 1-acre lot in 1989, they had to use a bulldozer to clear scrub alder (Alnus spp.) and maple (Acer spp.) trees that had been allowed to take over.

A house on a hill has the benefit of great views and cooling breezes, but a property with a steep slope also presents challenges. For the first several years that they lived there, they tried to grow grass on the slope, but it was difficult to maintain, as you can imagine. And Nadine says, “You can’t play croquet on a sloping lawn.”

A labor of love

Furthermore, a ravine runs along the side and across the back of the property, and had apparently been a dumping site for many years: It was filled with garbage, including an old iron bathtub and a car chassis. Nadine says, “People used to just tip things over the edge instead of taking them to the dump.” Ted and Nadine had their work cut out for them if they wanted to enjoy, instead of simply tolerate or manage, their backyard.

Creating terraces to manage the slope

Finally, Ted was tired of sliding off the tractor seat while doing lawn maintenance, so he decided to use terracing to level off the steepest area close to the house. He began by creating a few beds held in by landscape timbers, which was the common method at that time. Nadine says, “When we started, Ted laid out the outline of the flower bed with a garden hose, and I thought, ‘That’s far too big. I’ll never be able to look after it.’ But since then it’s grown exponentially!”

Over the years, the timbers deteriorated, and when they required replacing, Ted realized that he and Nadine already had plenty of raw materials in the stone that they regularly unearthed in the soil and at the bottom of the ravine. So he rebuilt the walls, and eventually made the stairs in the backyard.

Stone walls, pathways and more

Those first stone walls near the house launched a decades-long project of more pathways, staircases and walls that wind their way through densely planted beds and trees, and now there are only a few small areas of lawn left. Ted, a graphic artist by profession, has an affinity for curving lines and has created a layout that feels intimate yet celebrates expansive views. Keep reading to learn more about the Stauntons’ adventures in stonework.

You Might Also Like:
Timeless European Garden Design Ideas to Try
Meet Epimedium: A Classic Shade Garden Perennial
The Problem-Solving Garden Book Collection

Working with stone in the garden

Once he gained some stone-working skills, there seemed no end to the inspiration (and supply!). Ted says, “I kept getting annoyed walking sideways on the property, so I’d try flattening this area, and then another. And pathways just kept presenting themselves.”

Ted’s tips for moving stone

Ted has hauled thousands of stones, and with a clicker keeps track of every one that he brings from the ravine that’s larger than a loaf of bread. So far, the number is higher than 3,000. For smaller stones, he walks the wheelbarrow down the switchback paths he built into the side of the ravine, fills it and pulls it backward to the top, bumping it along slowly.

A come-along winch is a game-changer

He employs the laws of physics and simple tools to lift and place the ones too large to carry. A come-along winch has been an invaluable resource: He’s able to chain one end of the cable to a tree and the other to the large rock to be moved, then ratchets the lever to draw the stone up the hill. Then he moves farther up the hill, hooks it up to another tree and continues. Still not an easy proposition!

An affinity for stone

The name Staunton has its origins in Old English, and was given to someone who lived near stony ground. It seems fitting as Ted has developed a keen eye not only for the best way to move each rock but also how to display and honor it. When he sees a stone with unusual characteristics, such as veining, speckling or a blue color, he places it next to a path where it’ll be seen. And every specimen’s unique shape inspires how it’s placed or how the path is built.

He likens building a wall or path to putting a puzzle together, considering color, texture and the different faces. See how perfectly the combination of different sizes and shapes of stones in the photo above fit together? Nadine says, “If I accidentally dislodge one, I have to get him to put it back,” because it’s such a precise art.

Moss: a shady benefit

Moss grows happily here, and the soft spongy pathway and beautiful stone faces are typical in this shady north-facing slope. However, they don’t mind its vigorous growth when in the lawn, because it remains green even when the turf turns brown.

Related Articles:
Talk & Tour: A Love Affair with Texture, Stone & Water
Marvelous Moss Garden
Watch Our Garden Videos on YouTube

Unique hardscaping

Stonework isn’t the only hardscaping handiwork on display in this garden. Arbors, a pergola, a shed, a greenhouse and the miniature Gothic-inspired chapel provide visual interest and utility. Placement and construction are all done with a view of the garden in mind. Picture windows in the shed face the back of the property and look over the hillside. And their pergola is in the perfect spot to catch a cooling breeze on a hot summer day.

An affinity for upcycling

The couple repurposes building materials whenever they can for these structures. For example, Ted utilized rough-sawn telephone pole offcuts to make the chapel’s siding and hand-split roofing shakes for the shed and chapel from a 60-foot cedar tree that had fallen in the ravine and needed to be removed. He worked on the shakes for about six months, and still has a stash ready for another project.

Ted added the cupola on the shed a couple of years ago after he found a stained glass window that he thought deserved to be displayed prominently. After designing the cupola, he and their son modified the shed roof to accommodate the new feature.

You Might Also Like:
How to Create a Sensory Garden
Classic Garden Woodworking Project Plans
Upcycling Project Ideas

Chapel getaway

Nadine and Ted knew that they’d like to nestle a small building into this semicircle of trees, and the tight quarters inspired this Gothic-style chapel. With skills he learned along the way and some coaching from his father-in-law, Ted has built all manner of projects. At 10 by 12 feet, the chapel is just the right size for a small table and chairs, where the grandkids like to play in warmer months. Ted says, “It’s enough for a small congregation: You can get about six people in there. But we do have a choir loft!”

The plant palette

Because there aren’t many full-sun spots on this north-facing slope, Nadine has chosen to grow mostly flowering plants in the garden, although she has found a few pockets in the front yard to grow her favorite vegetables.

Creating year-round garden interest

When choosing plants, her goal is to have interest throughout the year. Nadine says, “It’s been an experiment over the years to find which plants do well here. I move things around quite a bit until I find a spot where they’re happy.”

From November through March, fragrant ‘Pink Dawn’ viburnum (Viburnum x bodnantense) in the photo above blooms alongside an early round of witchhazels (Hamamelis spp. and hybrids) and hellebores (Helleborus spp. and hybrids), followed by daffodils (Narcissus spp. and hybrids), snowdrops (Galanthus spp. and hybrids) and crocuses (Crocus spp. and hybrids) in February. Nadine and Ted are big fans of ‘Pink Dawn’ because of its long bloom time, sweet scent and its attractiveness to the Anna’s hummingbirds that remain all winter in their garden.

Add seasonal show-offs

By the middle of spring the rhododendron (Rhododendron spp. and hybrids), euphorbias (Euphorbia spp. and hybrids) and pasque flower have joined the party. Later, summer-blooming perennials such as coreopsis (Coreopsis spp. and hybrids) and black-eyed Susans (Rudbeckia spp. and hybrids) in the photo above start their show, and by fall, the dahlias (Dahlia hybrids) are in their glory.

Finding drought-tolerant plants to deal with weather changes

With less rain in recent summers, the Stauntons have started taking note of which plants are most drought tolerant. Some standouts include hostas (Hosta spp. and hybrids) and rhododendrons, which put on such a beautiful show in spring. So when they’re shopping the nursery sales in fall, their favorite time for bargain plants, they’re including drought tolerance on their list of must-have characteristics. Ted chops up the plentiful leaves that fall on the property, and the couple mulches with them to help retain soil moisture as well.

Get easy repetition with reseeding plants

Repeating pools of blue flowers along the pathways has mostly happened naturally as annuals and perennials reseed around the structural trees and shrubs. Nadine says: “I tend to leave most of them unless they’re in the way or impeding another plant. Because it’s such a large garden I don’t have time to manicure every spot.” Learn more about her favorite reseeding plants here!

You Might Also Like:
Buy the Current Issue of Garden Gate Magazine
Watch Our Videos on YouTube
Travel to Gardens With Us!

Secrets to successful raised garden beds

The first time that New Jersey’s Resh Gala tried to grow tomatoes, she didn’t get a single edible fruit, thanks to blossom end rot and other struggles. But she was determined to learn from her failure. The next year, she had more encouraging results in her small raised bed and decided to keep growing. Since then, she’s learned that not everything will be perfect: Whether it’s a new pest infestation, bad weather or something else, every year is different.

But when one crop struggles, another one usually thrives. This determination to keep trying new things and continue gardening through difficulties led to Resh being named 2020 Gardener of the Year by Burpee Home Gardens. Now she’s launched a business, Hundred Tomatoes LLC, to help other aspiring gardeners achieve their hoped-for harvests, and written the book Vegetable Gardening Made Easy. Her specialty is intensively planting herbs, flowers and vegetables together in raised beds that are both visually striking and productive.

Creating a beautiful and bountiful garden

Resh says, “Most home gardeners seek a beautiful garden that takes minimal time and effort to thrive.” That’s why she recommends polyculture gardening — growing several types of plants together in the same space. It’s a very different look than the traditional rowed-out vegetable garden.

This planting style mimics nature, reducing pest problems while attracting pollinators and beneficial insects in a healthy backyard ecosystem. Want to know her secrets to productive raised garden beds? Learn some of her favorite plant combinations below, and keep reading for her tips on choosing the best materials, planting medium and more.

You Might Also Like:
Calculate How Many Vegetables to Plant
Avoid These 8 Common Vegetable Gardening Mistakes
Maximize Your Garden Harvest With This Garden Plan

Beneficial companion planting ideas for raised garden beds

Resh says, “Polyculture confuses pests. I think of it as natural pest control for the garden.” Some plants repel insects and others act as trap crops, luring the pests away from susceptible plants. She often plants a border of herbs around her raised beds, using it as the first line of defense against insects. For example, the chives help repel pests from the strawberries and lettuce. The annual flower pot marigold acts as a trap crop: It attracts aphids, which remain on the sticky calendula foliage and leave peppers and tomatoes alone. Once you notice several insects trapped in the plant, it’s time to pull and dispose of it.

Resh’s favorite beneficial plant pairings:

• Cucumber + dill + nasturtiums
• Tomatoes + basil + marigolds
• Broccoli + chives + sweet alyssum
• Eggplant + sage + pot marigolds
• Carrots + thyme + peas

Benefits of raised garden beds

Raised beds have many benefits if you’re establishing a new vegetable garden:

Raised beds are easy to maintain

With clearly defined edges, raised beds help you manage your garden layout and reduce weed creep. They also make tasks like watering, harvesting and rotating crops easier to plan and execute because you can stack them as high as you’d like, to reduce back and knee strain.

Raised beds can go almost anywhere

Raised beds make the most of small or awkward areas—tuck them into tight corners, patios, or even rooftops. They’re completely customizable.

Allows for soil quality control

The foundation of a good garden is healthy soil. Transforming poor soil into a healthy, plant-ready state can take years — it’s not as simple as tossing a bag of compost or manure on top. But raised beds allow you to start growing right away and with the confidence that you’ll get a good harvest if the soil in the ground is nutrient-poor, too dry, too soggy or heavy clay, as Resh’s was.

Once a bed is established, compost is the secret sauce for healthy plants. Resh makes her own in a compost tumbler with kitchen scraps and pine pellets, and every fall she top-dresses beds with 3 to 4 inches of compost. When plants are starting to produce and set fruit, she side-dresses with more. If you don’t have access to this much compost, she recommends feeding your garden earthworm castings or compost purchased in bulk.

You Might Also Like:
Vegetable Gardening in Galvanized Raised Garden Beds
Permaculture Gardening Basics
Companion Plantings That Really Work

Resh’s perfect planting medium for raised garden beds

Top 25% of raised bed:

• High-quality raised bed mix. (Resh likes the Coast of Maine brand.)

Bottom 75% of raised bed:

• 30% topsoil
• 30% compost
• 10% vermiculite for water retention
• 5% perlite to help with drainage

How to Calculate Raised Bed Materials

Length x Width x Height = Total volumeFor example, a 4x8x1 bed = 32 cubic feet of material

Using Resh’s suggested ratios above, this would translate to:

• 8 cubic feet of raised bed mix (25%)
• 9.6 cubic feet of topsoil (30%)
• 9.6 cubic feet of compost (30%)
• 3.2 cubic feet of vermiculite (10%)
• 1.6 cubic feet of perlite (5%)

Note: For several beds, it may be most cost-effective to order in bulk, measured in cubic yards. Divide cubic feet by 27 to determine cubic yards.

Utilize plant supports to maximize raised garden bed space

Support structures help a gardener get the most out of an intensively planted small space. Here’s how Resh matches the structure to the purpose:

Garden arches

Use these for vining beans, gourds, melons, squash and even cherry tomatoes. You may need to secure heavy fruit with netting or old stockings to keep them from breaking off. Resh likes to extend an arch between two beds.

Obelisks

These are perfect for plants whose foliage needs to be corralled, such as sweet peas, tomatoes, bush cucumbers, peas and even pole beans.

Fence panels

You can harvest beans, cucumbers and peas from both sides of these, and they’re easy to make with a cattle panel and wooden posts.

Teepees

Tie four garden stakes together with twine to create an easy structure for pole beans or peas. If plants need a little help climbing, make layers by wrapping twine at different heights.

Plant cages

Traditional tomato cages are too small for tomatoes, but they work well to corral medium-sized bushy plants, such as eggplants and peppers.

You Might Also Like:
7 Methods to Stake Plants
Smart Ways to Repurpose Tomato Cages in the Garden
Classic Woodworking Garden Project Plans

Best materials for raised garden beds

Resh builds each bed with 2×6 untreated red cedar or Douglas fir boards and attaches a 4-inch-wide trim piece to the top edge of every bed. This makes it comfortable to rest a basket or sit on.

She recommends a height of 12 to 24 inches. The taller a bed, the less bending you’ll have to do to take care of it, but taller beds also require more amendments and soil, increasing the cost up front. Resh suggests beds no larger than 4×8 feet for structural integrity and ease of access.

Modify raised garden beds for pest management

If deer and rabbit damage is a concern, these 24-inch-tall hinged chicken wire cages will keep them out. Ready to work in the garden? Unhook, slide a barrel bolt open and flip the side down.

To keep digging pests out, Resh staples ¼-inch hardware cloth to the bottom of each bed. Line the inside with landscape fabric or cardboard before filling with soil to help the wood last longer.

Install irrigation systems to make watering easier

Install 1⁄2-inch drip irrigation tubing with emitters spaced 6 inches apart to provide even coverage for both large and small plants in a garden with several beds, where watering becomes more of a chore.

Follow Resh Gala!

• Author, garden coach and designer
  
• reshgala.com
  
• Follow on Instagram: @reshgala