Creating a Four Seasons Garden

Creating a Four Seasons Garden JENRON DESIGNS

Creating a Four Seasons Garden

Check out all my landscaping tips for creating a Four Seasons Garden, which will add visual interest all year long.

Here are some of my best tips for Creating a Four Seasons Garden. Spring time is the most common time to plant and add the long awaited beautiful color and foliage back into your yard after the cold winter months. I will admit my yard tends to be very heavy in the spring blooms department, but as you buy new plants for your yard keep in mind when they will be at the peak of their blooming season. Try to get unique blooms to create an ever blooming yard so you will always have a nice focal point throughout the year.

Good Bones for a Winter Garden

A few things I have learned along the way are to add things with good structure. Evergreen trees and shrubs that can have the possibility of producing blossoms. This will create a nice framework or backdrop for you garden even when they may not be in bloom. Plus if you go with an evergreen foliage you will still have some green in the winter. Here is a list of a few of my favorites:

  • Magnolias- varieties like Little Gem, Bracken’s Brown, & Teddy Bears (large Summer blooms fragrant)
  • Loropetalum or Weigela (spring blooms)
  • Pieris Mountain Fire
  • Gardenias (seen below)  fragrant summertime blooms perfect to float in a dish or pin in your hair
  • Camelias or Rose of Sharon (winter and early spring blooms)
  • Hollies- Chestnut Leaf & Golden King are two of my favorites for leaf colors and shape with bright red berry clusters 
    Gardenia Bush JENRON DESIGNS

Spring Bloomers & Bulbs

Spring is probably the easiest season to plant, it is also the one you may have a tendency to go overboard with and plant to much. for that season. Let’s face it we all get excited for the warmer weather and rebirth of spring but it can lead to a yard that is bloom heavy in the spring and nothing for the rest of the year. Take that into account as you plant. Plant items that will have lasting blooms or reoccuring blooms.Encore Azaleas JENRON DESIGNS

Here are some great options to take advantage of the spring and other seasons as well:

  • Encore Azaleas (seen above) unlike basic azaleas these will bloom both in the spring and fall
  • Weigela- covered with blooms early spring, which keep going until fall
  • Spiraea- continued blooms up until early fall
  • Knock Out Roses- bloom spring through early fall but be sure to deadhead to promote new growth
  • Phlox (seen below)- is great in rock gardens and is a huge pop of springtime color

Phlox Rock Garden JENRON DesignsBulbs are also a great way to plant for the spring. Here in the south we are lucky enough to be able to leave the majority of of bulbs in the ground year round without having to winterize them. So we can plant them once and pretty flowers just show up every year; daffodils, calla lilies, iris, crocus, and tulips are perfect springtime bulbs.Iris Bulbs Jenron Designs

Plants That Take The Summer Heat

Drought tolerant plants that can last throughout the summer are so important living here in Georgia. Plus they have nice blooms during the summer months as well, and are always a welcome treat. I personally love Hydrangea for the summertime blooms but heat tolerant is not their strong suit, as they are water lovers, so keep that in mind when planting.

Butterfly Bush JENRON DESIGNS

  • Lantana- comes in varieties that are perennials and absolutely love the heat
  • Butterfly Bush (seen above) – Pretty summer blooms that last well into the fall and attract butterflies
  • Stella de Oro Daylily (seen below) – this is a perennial that blooms all summer long and loves the sun and heat
  • Bee Balm- comes in great colors; a returning perennial that loves the sun and attracts bees to the garden.
  • Rudbeckia- also known as Black Eyed Susans another great perennial that comes back every year bigger and bigger.

    Stella de Oro Daylily JENRON DESIGNS

Adding in Fall Foliage & Color

Fall blooms are tricky because you really only have mums as a flower to choose from at most garden centers. However there are some great winter greens like kale, ornamental peppers and cabbage that are pretty for gardens. This is where you want to make sure that have chosen great shrubs and trees that will give you fall foliage colors. Also a great place to utilize the Encore Azaleas which will began to bloom again. Here are a few trees and shrubs that will bring a ton of fall color to any garden:

  • Sunset Maple Tree (seen below) – beautiful deciduous orange and red leaves in the fall
  • Japanese Maples (also seen in background)
  • Burning Bushes- a bright fiery red
  • Barberry- red or burgundy
  • Ornamental Grasses are also pretty this time of year, great in summer months into fall

    Sunset Maple Fall JENRON DESIGNS

Create A Cutting Garden

One of my true passions for every yard is to create a cutting garden, so I can cut fresh blooms for every season directly from my yard. There is no greater joy than to go out and cut fresh flowers from your own yard and create a vase arrangement for yourself. For this I have created specific gardens like my David Austin Rose Garden, Peony garden, or Hydrangea garden. Each garden has several specimens or varieties of each type of flower in them, which bloom throughout the seasons. I also have a large variety of perennials scattered about the garden to intermix as well. Varieties of greenery and such to fill with is also available too. Here are just a few of my favorites:

You can see more about How To Grow Your Own Perfect Peonies and learn the differences between Limelight verse Autumn Hydrangeas at these great garden lovers posts!Cutting Garden Flowers JENRON DESIGNS

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4 Seasons Garden Tips JENRON DESIGNS

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What’s In My Garden Shed?

29 Comments

  1. You’ve given me so much to think about. We really only have spring (not much) and summer plants in our garden. Winter is usually out because of the snow, but we could add a few new shrubs. I’ll really have to think about fall blooms. A burning bush or two could be nice.

  2. Wow you’ve shared some really great info! I love the idea of being able to go to your garden all year long and cut fresh flowers. Thanks for sharing some of your expertise with us on how to achieve this Jennifer!

  3. Wow what a beautiful garden! Sadly I don’t have one or else it would be the first thing I would work on here in isolation 🙂

  4. judean

    What a great post! When reading about gardening, I haven’t come across a 4-season post so thank you! We are not landscapers at all. As a matter of fact, we really like to use only perennials because I do not like planting so I make my husband do it. We still have our 3 burning bushes and 2 barberries that we planted almost 20 years ago! We just trim them every year. You can’t buy barberries any longer as they have been deemed ‘illegal’ because of the prickers.

  5. What a beautiful garden! My husband and I are landscaping our backyard during this quarantine and this couldn’t have come at a better time. Thank you!

  6. Thank you, Yes this is our back yard, we planted it four years ago and the pictures are from last spring, with all the rain this year has been even better. I have been doing a “Bloom of the Day” on my Instagram account as things are coming in.

  7. Wow I have heard that about certain varieties of barberries but most are still available here in Georgia. I guess we are lucky.

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  10. Wow! What an absolute beauty of nature! I never would have thought creating a four seasons garden would be possible as it would interfere with the different seasonal plants depending on the season of the place that they are put and gathered into.

  11. Such a beautiful garden you have! I always dream to have my own garden and every morning cut some fresh flowers. Great info!

  12. Shar

    Lovely tips with full of colourful, illustrative photos! I have a garden, but hardly take care of it myself. I love garden walks to relax myself.

  13. Karletta

    Your garden is stunning … thank you for the tips to inspire me to add more colour. Here in Cyprus I love the Citrus trees and fig trees in the garden. Also the Rosemary plants grow enormous. We need more flowers though – Roses grow beautiful here, so you’ve inspired me to bring those on to the patio.

  14. These are just so beautiful and awesome, knowing what to plant all through the year that has different seasons can be a sort of task most time, with article such as this does help a lot.

  15. Ara

    Wow such a great info here, I LOVE THIS POST!

  16. Dallas

    Wow that looks amazing! It certainly gives it that fresh style look. Love it.

  17. Chicago Chick

    I love this look!! I am tempted to try using it myself.

  18. Perfect timing as we are getting ready to choose plants for our backyard. We dug everything out so blank canvass.

  19. It looks so pretty, I’ve never thought of creating one so thank you for the tips

  20. You have a very pretty garden right there! How I wish I can have my own little garden soon.

  21. Wow, this is choke-full of resources. And, if that’s your garden it is gorgeous. Like you, I do love a cutting garden. But, unlike you, I don’t have a green thumb. You’ve inspired me to think differently about the flowers and plants at home.

  22. Tisha

    Your garden is seriously goals!!! Love it

  23. Love all these flower and garden photos. I don’t have any space to do my own garden so appreciate the freshness that you see everyday

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