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by High Country Gardens

We want you to succeed in all your gardening endeavors! As gardening experts, we often hear from our customers when they are in need of tips to improve their garden.

We’ve selected topics based on the most common questions we’ve heard from our customers.  You can browse through our helpful hints in the navigation at the left, or if you are looking for something specific try looking for it in our search bar.

Our Favorite Top 10 Gardening Tips

We’ve surveyed our horticulturists and master gardeners, and here are a few of their favorite gardening tips:

Penstemon mexicali 'Pikes Peak Purple'Penstemon, like Penstemon mexicali 'Pikes Peak Purple', should be left to re-seed.
  1. Many of our favorite garden perennials will re-seed themselves when you leave seeds to ripen on the plants.  Don't "deadhead."  Have a more natural looking garden by letting the plants find their own growing spots.  Perennials like Flax (Linum), Coneflowers (Echinacea), Chocolate Flower (Berlandiera), Beardtongue (Penstemon) and Sundrops (Calylophus) are all good re-seeders.
  2. When gardening with perennial flowers, it’s best to arrange plants to bloom across the whole span of the growing season.  Most perennials bloom for a month or so during four loosely defined periods; early spring, late spring, summer or fall.
  3. Vigorous growing groundcovers allow you to quickly fill in areas of your landscape where you no longer want a grass lawn.  Groundcovers are excellent low maintenance, lower water plants for areas that experience little foot traffic.  Spaced on 15-18” centers, all of our groundcovers will fill in over a single growing season.  Mow once after blooming to keep their foliage looking tidy.
  4. When growing a lot of different Agastache varieties together in the same area, they will often reseed themselves.  Usually these volunteer seedlings will be inferior in size and color to the parent plants and we recommend that they be weeded out on a regular basis to avoid crowding the original plants.  Regular deadheading (removing spent blooms) will also reduce reseeding.
  5. Ornamental grasses are wonderfully showy and low maintenance.  Keep them looking their best with a few simple steps:
    • Fertilize in the fall with Yum Yum Mix.  Scratch a cup into the soil around their base.
    • Cut back to 2” of stubble in early to mid-spring and scratch out dead stems thoroughly to make room for the new season’s growth.
    • Reinvigorate them by dividing the clumps once every 3 to 4 years.
  6. When Western gardeners experience a dry winter it is recommended that they water their garden at least once a month, or twice a month if the dry weather continues.  Water the garden early in the day and only when the air temperatures are above freezing.
  7. For planning a new flower bed consider grouping plants based off of their growing requirements.  Plant perennials that require the same amount of sun, water or quality of soil together to insure a successful garden.
    8. Echinacea purpureaEchinacea is a great wildflower for attracting butterflies, bees, hummingbirds and songbirds.
  8. Echinacea are some of the best wildflowers for attracting butterflies, bees, hummingbirds and songbirds.  Unlike the fancy double flowered varieties currently so popular, the single flowered types are nectar rich and provide seeds in the late summer and fall for goldfinches and other seed eating birds.  Leave the old flowers on the plants to ripen the seeds.
  9. Regardless of the type of lawn you have, by maintaining a rich organic soil, you will use less water, mow your lawn less frequently, have much healthier trees and shrubs, and be free of all the toxic chemicals and fertilizers used in conventional lawn care.
  10. By landscaping with water use zones you are focusing your water resources to where it is most beneficial to your outdoor living environment.  Plant perennials where they will be able to receive the water that they require and it will help you build a water efficient garden.

    11. We are here to help!

    Question still unanswered?  Call (800) 925-9387 or use our Live Chat Feature to talk to one of our gardening experts who would be happy to help.

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