Deer problems? Not with this late-spring garden. Don’t spend enormous amounts of money spraying chemicals on flower beds to prevent the deer from eating the landscape. Work with Mother Nature - use plants the deer won’t eat. It’s good, it’s green, it’s common sense.
The deer proof flower garden: delphiniums and Icelandic poppies. These beauties don’t have much to say December through February, but now you just can’t shut them up! Bloom time: March & April, full sun (where they can smile brightly), Zone 7B
A little winter flower bed.
It’s August, and the flower beds are still going strong. Simple secret: watering, feeding, occasional dead-heading to keep everything “tidy.” AND this one’s deer proof, and NO I’m not making that up!
Pretty in Pink.
The late summer garden can look pretty sad this time of year. Families are getting ready for school or taking that last minute vacation before fall, and it’s just too hot to invest a lot of time in the yard….while many people are already thinking high school and college football.
So why not make it easy on yourself and dedicate one section of the yard, just for late summer pleasure? These perennials and grasses are all in their prime August through September, so by planting them together, one area of the garden will sing right on through Autumn.
My favorites for the Autumn garden: Chrysanthemum (not the grocery store variety), Asters, Muhly Grass, Cone Flowers, Shasta Daisies, Black-Eyed Susans and dwarf fountain grasses. It’s showtime!
Cockscomb Celosia, Celosia cristata (aka Crested Celosia or Brain Flower) can be easily harvested and dried for floral arrangements.
Celosia spicata (aka Wheat Flower), below.
Celosia plumosa has feathery, plume-like flowers.
All my friends are flowers.
Autumn flower garden ingredients: Celosia, Gomphrena, and Rudbeckia for flowers; lettuces and kale for foliage. In another month, tuck some pumpkins and gourds into the flower bed.
All my friends are flowers.
Beat the heat beauty: Lavender Vinca and Purple Angelonia. Deer proof, too!
Beat the Heat Border Garden with Hibiscus. Here in Atlanta, we’ve already had a couple of weeks of near 100-degree temperatures in May and June. It becomes more and more of a challenge to find flowers for the border garden that just don’t survive, but thrive. Pictured: Hibiscus, Angelonia, Begonia, Ageratum, New Guinea Impatiens, and Salvia.
