Spring into Summer with Easy-Care Combos

There's a time between the cool-season spring bulbs and heat-loving summer in garden: The temperature is warm but not hot, there's been enough rain but it's not muddy, and you're still ahead of the weeds. The three plantings here hit their peak at that sweet spot between spring and summer.

- ennifer Howell

Want to keep these beauties looking great through the summer? Spread a 2- to 3-inch layer of mulch, such as shredded bark, wood chips, straw or even compost, around the plants before they get too big. This will help them stay hydrated and smother weed seedlings that would become competition in the garden. You'll thank yourself later when you have fewer weeds to deal with and you won't have to water as much. And don't forget to deadhead to keep the plants looking tidy, extend their flowering time and encourage another flush of blooms.

Calming Pastel Palette

Groupings of low, mounded foliage topped by petite pastel flowers give this border a calming flow. Even without a glamorous, attention-getting plant as a focal point, your eye is drawn to the restful scene. And each of these perennials is a dependable, easy-care bloomer. Give them full sun and regular watering and they won't let you down.

Though this combo peaks in late spring to early summer, don't think its show is one and done. Deadheading is the key to keeping it fresh and colorful. Cut lady's mantle flower stems off at the base once they begin to turn brown to keep it tidy. Use scissors or a cordless hand-held hedge trimmer to shear spent blooms from catmint and dianthus after the first flush fades to coax a second, lighter bloom. Snip faded salvia spikes off just above a set of leaves to encourage secondary blooms to take off. Then, in midsummer if the plant is flopping or looking leggy, cut spent stems back to a few inches from the ground, where a mound of new growth will fill in and rebloom in late summer to fall alongside the pollinator-friendly seven-son flower.

A Seven-son flower Heptacodium miconioides