Plan Your Garden for Continuous Color

Once your soil is prepared and supplemented with compost and other organic matter, it’s time to plan your plots. Real Simple suggests consulting the USDA’s plant hardiness zone chart before picking out flowers and vegetables; your local garden center can also recommend plants based on how much sun and shade your garden gets. To keep a flower garden blooming throughout the season, mix mostly perennials with a few annuals, says Yard Crashers’ Chris Lambton, and maintain it throughout the season. “It’s also good to plant according to height, making sure that taller plants don’t block the sun from shorter ones.”