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It’s officially summertime in Westchester County. If you’re looking to build or spruce up a garden for the summer but are not sure where to start, we have you covered. Here are seven tips from celebrity landscape artist and author, Jan Johnsen, that will help you build an eye-catching garden. Happy planting!
Add flowers in planters by your front walkway or even placed within the plant bed.
Add a bench and several planters. Use different-size planters to vary the display.
Stick with easy-care classics, like traditional red geraniums.
They make quite a show, especially when you pot up several matching planters. A diluted solution of liquid fertilizer every three weeks in spring and summer helps the show continue. Don’t overwater!
Spillers make the difference.
Hanging foliage adds interest and is effective both in pots and window boxes. The eye-catching “Silver Falls” Dichondra looks great with pink flowers. Also, try the yellow “Creeping Jenny” Lysimachia.
Deer-resistant and evergreen hellebore is a perennial flower that is long-lived.
The foliage is as great as the early spring flowers. Float the blossoms on water for a great display.
Got part shade?
Plant large groups of deer-resistant Astilbe for a mass effect. More is better when it comes to this perennial. Add ferns for a great effect in your Westchester garden.
A early-summer flower that deer don’t eat is perennial Salvia.
You can plant both blue and white. They look great with the round, purple flowers of the deer-resistant perennial Allium.
Jewel-toned pink flowers look great with the fall-blooming Sedum known as “Autumn Joy.”
Kids think the flowers look like broccoli before they turn pink in late summer in your Westchester garden.
Related: 6 Garden Centers and Plant Shops to Visit in Westchester