How To Make A Garden With Bare Root Perennials

Are you ready to get your hands in the soil this spring?

To plant some things that can and will make a difference in this uncertain world?

Perennial plants can help you keep busy creating positive changes in your world in a variety of ways by:

providing habitat and food for wildlife like birds, bees and other beneficial insects,
providing food for you directly by being edible,
and by providing beauty and happiness during this chaotic time.

If starting or adding to your perennial garden leaves you with questions, I can help! Read through my guide below and learn how to make a garden with bare root perennials!

Photo credit: Mary Sue Henszey

Step #1 Plan your garden's purpose

When planning a garden, you'll be most satisfied with the result if you have a clear goal in mind. Here are some questions to think about if you're still clarifying your garden goals for the season:

What kinds of plants are right for me?

What function do I want my garden to have?
Food for me?
Food for beneficials?
Beauty for everyone?
Easy to put in and to care for?
What colors do I want?
What heights do I want?
What seasons do I want to see flowers?

When it comes to gardening let’s start with the most basic of definitions. Perennial vs annual, what are we talking about? Here are some definitions of common garden terms to help you figure out what is what and what you want for your garden.

Perennials:

A perennial plant is one that comes back every year. Herbaceous perennial plants grow lots of vegetation in the summer (including often flowers) and then die back to the ground with only brown leaves or stalks sticking up to indicate where they were. Woody perennial plants like shrubs, trees, bushes, etc. also come back every year and have woody stems that stick up all winter, even if they have lost their leaves.

Annuals:

Annual plants die in the fall/winter. These are most commonly like the veggies, herbs, and flowers that are planted in a typical garden. They do not come back every year.

Edible plants:

An edible perennial plant is one which has at least one edible part of the plant at some point during the year, leaves, roots, fruits, etc.

Medicinal plants:

A medicinal perennial plant is one from which you can derive an herbal medicine from some portion of the plant during its growth cycle, leaves, roots, flowers, or fruits.

Native plants:

In the U.S., a native plant generally refers to a species that was present and growing in America prior to European contact.

So what, you ask?

Why native plants matter:

Wildlife & Biodiversity value:
Native plants are much more valuable to the wildlife that surround us than non-native plants. Most butterflies and moths in their larval stage as caterpillars are herbivores adapted mostly to consuming certain native plant species that they have evolved with over millennia. And most birds, whatever they may eat as adults, feed their young nearly exclusively on caterpillars and other insects. Growing native plants provides the food sources that baby birds and caterpillars need to successfully mature into the birds and butterflies that we want in our gardens and yards.
Fragmentation and human managed ‘nature’:
The reality is that humans control what the landscape looks like and what it is planted to for a vast majority of this country and this world. When we plant native plants it helps the wildlife (birds, insects, butterflies, etc.) to still have food and be able to survive within our fragmented landscapes, thereby effectively piecing nature back together right in our backyards.
Hardiness and Resilience:
Native plants are naturally adapted to the climate of the region that they are native to. They are naturally hardy and are likely to survive the winter and come back every year. Because they have adapted to the region they are also more resilient in terms of a changing climate as well as more likely to thrive without costly supports like irrigation, pesticides, and chemical fertilizers.

Step #2 Select your garden site:

There are a few things to consider when making a garden site.

Sunlight is obviously a big one.

As far as perennials go there are some that tolerate more shade than others. Evaluate your garden site and consider how much sunlight vs shade it gets when the leaves are on the trees.

Examples of native plants for sunny areas with average soil:

Achillea millefolium Common yarrow*
Asclepias incarnata Rose milkweed*
Asclepias syriaca Common milkweed*
Chelone glabra Turtlehead
Clematis virginiana Virgins bower clematis*
Doellingeria umbellata Tall white aster
Echinacea pupurea Purple coneflower*
Eupatorium perfoliatum Boneset
Euthamia graminifolia Grass leaved goldenrod
Eutrochium fistulosum Hollow Stem Joe pye weed*
Eutrochium maculatum Spotted Joe pye weed
Liatris novae-angliae Northern blazing star
Monarda fistulosa Wild Bergamot*
Penstemon hirsutus Northeastern beardtongue
Solidago canadensis Canada goldenrod
Symphyotrichum novae-angliae New England aster*
Vernonia noveboracensis New York ironweed