With the growing season here on the beautiful Rocky Mountains just kicking off, there have been a lot of great questions coming in. One of these questions was; How do we create year round interest in the garden? It can seem like a daunting task to get everything in the ground at the right time, or to pick the right plants for the area. A tip that makes garden planning more manageable is to break up different tasks for different seasons. One of the first things I like to do when planning a new garden is to take a moment to visualize what I want that garden to look like at different times of the year. I imagine the first signs of flowers to start popping up in spring, followed by the surge of growth in the hot Colorado summers, and the foliage slowly changing over the long autumn season we have here. I try to think about plants that can add structure and color to the garden even in the winter. Spring flowering bulbs like crocus, daffodils, and tulips are usually the first to come out and should be planted in the cooler fall months. If you choose for these to be in your garden you should wait to put them in till September or October, once the ground starts cooling off again. Planting a red-twig dogwood will give you spring flowers and the red bark creates a beautiful contrast with snow in the winter. There are bulbs you can plant in spring that bloom in summer like dahlias, freesias, and gladiolus, they can be planted out now that the danger of heavy frost has passed. There are more summer blooming perennials than I can list here, but some good things to keep in mind when choosing any plants for the garden are Size, Color, Shade/Sun tolerance, and water needs. Some more things to consider especially for here in Colorado is the hardiness of the plant, and if it needs to hold up to the intense winds we can get here. Creating interest in the garden in autumn can be done by choosing plants that either change their foliage color, or bloom in fall. Planting a well picked tree now will give you instant structure and interest throughout the year. Some fall flowering options include Mums, stonecrop, Japanese anemone, chelone, coreopsis, and begonias. By getting creative, and mixing different kinds of plants, trees, and shrubs together, you can create a garden that gives you joy all year. -Rebecca Holzworth with Artistic Escapes Artistic Escapes is here for you! Need a little help or just looking for inspiration? Let's create your space together, give us a call anytime. 970-817-4901