GARDENING WITH ANNUALS AND PERENNIALS
How to remember the difference -- Annuals are like a high school annual yearbook - they are good for one season. Perennials can be considered like a full school career.
Annuals
An annual is a plant that is grown for a single season. The term includes plants that complete their life cycle, flower, and produce seeds within a year.
It also includes tender perennials, plants that live for years in climates where there is no frost, but die wherever freezing occurs, an example is the geranium. These plants can sometimes be brought indoors through the winter and replanted outdoors the next summer. Some plants are said to be half hardy, that is they will survive very light freezing.
Annuals are often reproduced by planting their seeds. They are also available as small plants ready for transplanting in the springtime.They can be purchased at garden centers as individual plants or very inexpensively in six packs. Many varieties and colors are available then.
Perennials
A perennial is a plant that survives more than two seasons. It is generally grown as a nearly permanent fixture in a garden and typically grows as a clump that expands outward through time. Perennials often die back to the roots in winter. Whether a plant is a perennial in a particular area depends on the local climate. The length and severity of the winter is the prime factor, particularly how deep the ground freezes.
New perennials are typically made by dividing the clumps though some grow easily from seeds. Dividing clumps creates new plants and helps keep the old clump growing and flowering vigorously. Perennials can be obtained from garden centers and by mail order. Chose the species, variety and color carefully since they are more expensive than annuals and are replaced less often.
Most perennials have fairly short bloom seasons, typically two to four weeks. It is common practice to grow annuals and perennials together to provide color throughout the growing season. Growing a variety of perennials with different blooming seasons is another strategy.
Biennials
Biennials take two years to complete their life cycles.Typically, they do not flower and produce seeds until the second year.They are not as common in the garden as annuals or perennials.
SUN AND SHADE
Full Sun
A plant that is described as needing full sun needs more than six hours of unobstructed sunlight each day. These plants often do best on the south or west side of a house.
Half Shade
Plants that do best in half shade benefit from some shade for half the day, typically they do best if they receive unobstructed sun in the mornings, but have shade during the hotter afternoons. Often these plants would do best if planted on the east sideof a house. Another term often used is partial shade.
Light Shade
Plants growing best in light shade prefer less than three hours a day of direct sun, typically they would prefer direct sun only during the cooler parts of the day. During the rest of the day, they would benefit from dappled shade or the kind of open shade that one has under a large tree that has no limbs close to the ground.Of course, different trees have varying densities of shade.
When a plant description says, "does well in shade "it usually refers to light shade. Gardeners should be aware that shade varies from month to month as the angle of the sun changes. Also trees that lose their leaves may have little shade beneath them in the springbut dense shade in July.
Deep Shade
A plant needing deep shade would suffer from any significant amount of direct sun. Often these are planted on the north side of structures or close under trees or shrubs with very dense foliage.
WEATHER, CLIMATE and MICROCLIMATES
Weather
Weather is the day-to-day or even minute-by-minute atmospheric conditions of temperature, air pressure, humidity, precipitation, wind, cloud cover, pollution, etc.
Climate
Climate is the usual seasonal range of temperatures, types and amount of precipitation, wind, cloud cover, etc. Climate is weather over a long period of time, years or decades. Climate changes are relatively slow.
For gardeners, climate controls what type of plants can be grown.The length of the growing season is one important factor.
Also important are the extremes of temperature. Plants have a limit as to how cold a temperature they can survive. Most annuals die if exposed to freezing weather. Perennials usually die back to the roots during winter, but perennial roots will die if the freeze exceeds a limit specific to the type of plant.
Heat also matters. Some plants thrive in high temperatures,but plants native to cool regions will likely shrivel in hot regions.
Microclimates
Most yards provide a variety of environments for growing plants. A southern exposure has sun all day. A northern exposure may get no direct sun at all. Eastern exposures tend to provide shelter from the hottest rays of the sun.
Trees, fences, houses, and other structures provide localized shade. These shady areas change in shape as the sun migrates through the day and through the seasons.
Structures, trees, and shrubs also change the wind flow. They will block wind from some areas and funnel it into others.
Houses and fences will block rainfall in some spots but concentrate precipitation in others. Down spouts from gutters will flood a spot during a rain.
A sloping landscape also affects plants. Soil on a slope drainsmore quickly, but moisture accumulates at the base. A south facing slopeis warmer than a flat landscape. A north facing slope gets less sun and warms more slowly in the spring.
Trees and shrubs will compete strongly for nutrients in thesoil as well as moisture. Their thick roots can out compete many garden plants.
A site that will help calculate sun angles is at solar .
SOIL, CLAY and SAND
Soil Definition
Soil is the naturally occurring element that gardenplants are rooted in. It is made up of several elements including rockthat has been broken up or weathered to the point of sand grainsor smaller.
Many soils get their character from the parent rock that wastheir main source. The weathering of rock involves not just breaking downthe bedrock into smaller and smaller fragments, but chemical changes thatoccur in some of the minerals of the rock.
Generally some rocks break down to produce sandy soils whileother types of rock produce clay soils. The process can take centuries.
Soil is more than ground up rock. Living organism can greatlymodify and improve soil. Good garden soils are a complex community of micro-organisms and includes larger creatures such as earthworms and insects.
The living part of the soil does such things as take fallentree leaves and break them down so their nutrients can be recycled andreused by plants. A rich soil is crawling with biological activity.
SandySoils
Sandy soils are said to be lighter,that is they are easier to dig. The grains make the clumps looser and theyfall apart more easily.
Sandy soils have fewer nutrients for plants to use. Fertilizerswash through the soil more easily. It has more air spaces due to the granularnature of the soil so that plant roots can penetrate more easily.
In the spring, sandy soils warm more quickly, however, waterdrains quickly. Since it holds water poorly, gardens in sand need morefrequent watering.
Clay Soils
Soils made mostly of clay are called heavysoils and are much harder to dig. The clay particles clump together, andclay becomes hard when dried out.
Clay has more nutrients than sand, and clay soils are usuallymore fertile. Clay holds moisture rather than letting it drain away assand will do, about four time as much. However, roots have a harder timegrowing through clay, and clay has less air space.
In spring, clay soils warm slowly since they are denser andusually contain more moisture.
Loam
Loam is the term for a soil that has a favorable mix of sand and clay. It falls in between in most soil characteristics. It cultivates moderately well and is moderately fertile, depending on the amount of organic material. Loam also holds moisture well.
All in all, most gardeners prefer to garden in loam or sandy loam, it avoids the problems the other types of soil pose. However all soils can be improved.
FERTILIZERS
Organic
Organic fertilizers improve the soil's growing capacity by the addition of
natural materials such as manure or compost. Organic fertilizers include the same minerals as chemical fertilizers but in smaller quantites that are released to the soil more slowly.
Organic fertilizers have additional benefits such as improving the soil's texture and water holding capacity as well as nuturing micro-organisms important for a soil's overall capacity for growing plants.
Chemical
Chemical fertilizers are manufactured chemicals designed to give a boost to plant growth and supply nutrients that are lacking. Usually the most important of these are nitrogen. Nitrogen (N) is important for leaf growth. Phosphorous (P) is needed for root health. Potash (K) is used in flower development. These are the primary chemicals in "complete" fertilizers. Often, small amounts of other chemicals such as sulfur, iron, magnesium, also are included.
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