Annuals are by definition plants whose life cycle lasts only one year, from seed to blooms to seed. Which on one hand seems sad, but on the other allows for your gardening creativity to change from year to year.

It doesn’t require a vast amount of knowledge or experience to surround yourself with Nature; planting annuals in containers that you then gather according to size on your deck or porch, with the largest in the back and the smallest in the front, brings color, butterflies, and hummingbirds to visit.

If you have bare spots in your garden, and you aren’t sure what perennial to place there, opt to fill it out with annuals. Or you can make entire gardens out of annuals because they are so easy to grow, are usually purchased in 6-packs or 4” pots, and allow you to experiment with form.

Try planting in swathes or waves, or in patterns using a monochromatic color scheme. If you don’t like one effect, you can always try something else the next time without the guilt of having “killed” a perennially-growing plant.

This gardener lives in a 200 year old farmhouse with a rocking chair porch. Hanging baskets help enliven the porch and extend the house outside. Window boxes filled with annuals entice the visitor with color and texture, and annuals flanking the stone-walled steps leading to the porch blur the line between driveway and doorway.

The wonder of annuals is that there are so many places where the simple addition of some plants creates an entire mood. Placing them around the base of trees and shrubs, bordering a tall garden, and adding curb-side appeal to your property with some annuals planted around your mailbox is a small, simple act that enriches the beauty of your home.

If you have an ornamental grasses garden, add color to the texture of the grasses with portulaca.

Once you start experimenting with annuals, you’ll soon develop favorites. We will be featuring some of our favorites with a description of each to guide you in your selections.