Three Season Gardens
In general though, this term refers to the ability of the gardener to design a garden that will have flowers in bloom for the main three seasons of gardening activity.
We want our blossoms in spring, summer and fall. But again, in warmer climates, you can go with four season gardens for sure (unfortunately, living in Canada, I’m pretty much restricted to blooms in my three season gardens).
And you can do it!
Basics of the Three Season Gardens
Luckily the basics of the three season gardens are pretty easy to figure out.
Divide your garden into zones or shapes of flowers. Garden designers usually use the term “drift” to describe the physical space one color/variety of perennial flower will take up. The amount of space in a drift is arrived at by figuring out how much space 3-5 individual plants of that variety will take up when they are two to three years old. For example, it a Phlox paniculata (garden phlox) will occupy an area 18” across in 3 years, then three of them in a row will occupy an area 18” wide by 54” long. The drift would be 18 x 54 inches.
It is not a good design idea to only have one individual plant of any perennial in a drift. This looks lonely and sad and doesn’t give you a blast of color. Use 3 to 5 plants for best effect in your three season gardens.
Drifts Divisable by Three
Make the number of drifts you create divisible by three. One third for spring blooming plants such as early perennials and bulbs. One third for summer blooming perennials and the last third for fall blooming perennials.
Install your plants based on bloom times and spread each time equally through the garden space. In other words, do not congregate all your spring bloomers in one area and your summer bloomers in a different area. Mix the bloom times equally both from side to side and front to back.
This one design trick will indeed keep three season gardens in bloom all season.
It is a really good idea to use a bit of graph paper to both design the garden shape and figure out the size and shape of drifts. Then you can play around with ensuring the equal distribution of bloom times through the garden area
Note that many fall bloomers are taller and will naturally go to the back of the garden. You’ll need to find shorter fall bloomers to compensate for this. The plant lists section will help you here.
Blooms All Summer Long
If the perennials are spread through the garden based on when they bloom as described above then your three seasons garden will have a flower in bloom all summer long.
Another trick is to pick perennial flowers that bloom for extended periods of time so they will overlap the bloomtime of shorter-blooming plants and create continuity of color.
Or use annuals that will bloom all summer to tide you over any non-flowering times your perennials may have.
The trick is to design a garden that is both in bloom all season and color co-ordinated. (for that you’ll need my book). This is far too long a topic for a short web page.
But the basics for creating a three seasons garden are right here. The challenge lies in your garden.
Do you have a question about Three Season Gardens?
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