How to care for annuals and perennials all year round

Summer is the high activity season in the garden, but if you plan ahead you will have plenty of time during the summer to admire your garden rather than toiling in it. Instead of working hard in the spring and summer, follow these simple tips all year round.

Late winter:

• Plant cold-tolerant flowering annuals including larkspur and poppies in all plant hardiness zones.
• Remove mulch from overwintered pansies in cold areas.

Spring:

• Set out bedding plants of cold-tolerant flowering annuals, including calendula, dusty miller, forget-me-not, lobelia, snapdragon and stocks in early spring.
• Plant containers with spring-flowering plant combinations.
• After the soil warms, sow seeds in the garden for marigolds, nasturtiums and zinnias.
• Set out warm-season annuals like begonias and annual geraniums after the last frost has passed.

Early summer:

• Deadhead annuals regularly to prolong their flowering time, and pinch back coleus and plectranthus to increase the number of branches.
• Begin fertilizing annuals being grown in containers on a biweekly basis.
• Plant heat-tolerant annuals including fan flower, lantana, sweet potato vine and tithonia.

Late summer:

• Pull up spring-planted annuals that are bloomed out, such as pansies.
• Give other annuals a deep drench with a soluble fertilizer.
• Shear back petunia and sweet alyssum to rejuvenate the plants.
• Set out flowering cabbage and kale, pansies and chrysanthemums.

Fall:

• Expect many summer-weary annuals to make a strong comeback after nights become longer and cooler.
• In mild-winter regions, continue planting hardy pansies and ornamental cabbage and kale, plant larkspur and poppies outdoors from seed and set out bedding plants of dusty miller, annual dianthus, forget-me-not and snapdragon, if they will survive.

Early winter:

• Where frosts are not severe, lightly mulch over overwintering pansies with a fluffy mulch of straw or evergreens.

Late winter:

• Look for the emergence of early bloomers, like hellebores.
• Where the soil is not frozen, set out dormant perennials that have thick roots, such as goatsbeard, gypsophila and peonies.
• As winter winds down, gradually rake back mulch used to cover dormant perennials and topdress the root zones with a two centimetre (close to one inch) blanket of compost.
• Prune back ornamental grasses to just above the crowns, or growing points.

Spring:

• Set out potted and bare-root perennials as early as possible, just as they are emerging from dormancy.
• Dig and divide asters, bee balm, lamb's ears and other perennials that have become crowded.
• When new growth shows on established plants, fertilize them with an organic or controlled release fertilizer.
• Stake or support tall and bushy perennials while they are still small so that they hide the supports as they grow.

Late summer:

• Cut old flowering stems from all perennials that have already bloomed.
• Dig and divide bearded iris.
• Plant offsets from bugleweed and hen and chicks.
• Stake tall asters.

Fall:

• In Zones 7 to 9, you can save time in spring by dividing many perennials in fall, such as bee balm, bugleweed, daylily, dianthus, obedient plants and yarrow.
• In other areas, trim off dead foliage and renew mulches around plants as cold weather descends.

Early winter:

• After the ground freezes, mulch over dormant perennials with a thick, fluffy organic mulch, such as straw. to keep the soil from thawing and refreezing.
• Where winters are milder, check plants often to see if any have been heaved out of the ground. Gently push them back down.