Adding Year-Round Interest to Your Garden

By Ava Green

Spring brings excitement and the hope of fresh beginnings, but also the harsh reality that our gardens can look a little…well…blah, in between seasons. Even when you have evergreens, well shaped trees, shrubs or perennials with “good bones” (strong framework or structure) a garden can look bare off season. This is when garden features and ornaments can really make a dramatic difference!

Create Year-Round Interest In Your Garden

Do you have a spot in the garden where plants struggle to grow? Or an area where you feel like your garden is missing something? 

Items like benches, patios, ornamental urns, decorative fencing, statues, a pond, gazing balls, birdhouses and birdbaths add beauty and function in every season. In Southern Ontario’s long shoulder seasons (early spring, late fall, and the longest of all - winter) these permanent elements help to make your garden look inviting all year.

Why Every Garden Benefits from a Focal Point

A garden filled with colourful annuals and perennials can be stunning, but without a focal point, it can feel visually overwhelming. A garden focal point like a bench, statement urn, a piece of statuary, or a water feature draws your attention, and creates a sense of purpose.

Focal points guide movement through the garden and help tell a story, leading visitors toward a destination. While naturalized gardens and wildflower areas don’t always require structure, for gardeners who prefer a more organized look, incorporating a focal point can create a sense of order and transform your space.

Add Contrast With Texture and Shape

Many gardeners naturally gravitate toward favourite plant forms. Tall, spiky perennials like coneflowers, salvia, and Black-eyed Susan are popular in Ontario gardens but they can feel repetitive when planted together.

Introducing contrast changes everything. A round birdbath nestled among upright perennials adds softness and contrast making it more visually interesting. In shady gardens dominated by hostas, a tall iron obelisk or trellis creates height and drama. Mixing plant textures with garden features like lighting instantly elevates beds and borders.

Express Your Personality!

Gardening is a creative process, and experimentation is part of the joy. Moving plants to find the right light or shelter often leads to surprising combinations and successes. Garden features allow you to express that creativity even further.

Statuary, ornaments, and structures, whether handcrafted or purchased, add personality and meaning. From whimsical accents to bold architectural elements, these features bring height, structure, and style to your garden in ways plants alone can’t.

More Than Just Flowers

Flowers bloom and fade with the seasons here in Southern Ontario. Garden features provide continuity, offering year-round interest, structure, and charm. With just a few additional elements, your garden can look beautiful in every season, not just when it’s in bloom.

Dealing with water restrictions or choosing to conserve water? You’re not alone. Many gardeners in Norfolk County are facing the challenge of keeping gardens thriving with less water. The good news? A lush, colourful garden is still within reach—thanks to drought-tolerant perennials.

When we think of drought-tolerant plants, cacti might be the first thing that comes to mind. But there’s a surprising variety of beautiful, hardy perennials that can handle our region’s dry spells—no desert landscape required.

While these plants do need regular watering when first planted, once established, they’re low-maintenance and well-suited to Southern Ontario’s climate, including periods of limited rainfall.

Full Sun Ground Cover

• Candytuft (Iberis sempervirens)
• Catmint (Nepeta x faassenii)
• Hardy ice plant (Delosperma nubigenum)
• Hens and chicks (Sempervivum tectorum)
• Moss phlox, creeping phlox (Phlox subulata)
• Pincushion flower (Scabiosa japonica var. alpina) (S. ‘Butterfly Blue’)
• Pinks (Dianthus alpinus)
• Rock cress, wall cress (Arabis species)
• Rock rose, sun rose (Helianthemum hybrids)
• Spurge (Euphorbia myrsinites) (E. polychroma)
• Stonecrop (Sedum acre) - dwarf varieties
• Thrift, sea pink (Armeria maritima)
• Thyme (Thymus species)

Full Sun, Medium to Tall Plants

• Beard-tongue (Penstemon digitalis) – Native
• Bergenia (Bergenia crassifolia)
• Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta) – Native
• Blanket flower (Gaillardia x grandiflora)
• Butterflyweed (Asclepias tuberosa) – Native
• False indigo, wild indigo (Baptisia australis)
• Hairy penstemon (Penstemon hirsutus) – Native
• Lanceleaf coreopsis (Coreopsis lanceolata) – Native
• Lavender (Lavandula angustifolia)
• Orange coneflower (Rudbeckia fulgida ‘Goldsturm’)
• Perennial cornflower (Centaurea montana)
• Poppy (Papaver species)
• Purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea)
• Prickly pear cactus (Opuntia compressa) – Native
• Russian sage (Perovskia atriplicifolia)
• Salvia (Salvia nemerosa hybrids)
• Sea Holly (Eryngium species)
• Silver sage, wormwood (Artemisia ludoviciana)
• Threadleaf coreopsis (Coreopsis verticillata) – Native
• Yarrow (Achillea millefolium)  

Full Sun Grasses

• Big bluestem (Andropogon gerardii) – Native
• Blue fescue (Festuca glauca)
• Blue oat grass (Helictotrichon sempervirens)
• Feather reed grass (Calamagrostis x acutiflora ‘Karl Foerster’)
• Little blue stem (Schizachyrium scoparium) – Native
• Switch grass (Panicum virgatum) – Native

Groundcover for Shade

• Barrenwort (Epimedium hybrids)
• Bigroot geranium (Geranium macrorrhizum)
• Canada anemone (Anemone canadensis) – Native
• Creeping phlox (Phlox stolonifera)
• Sweet Woodruff (Galium odoratum)
• Wild ginger (Asarum canadense) – Native
• Woodland phlox (Phlox divaricata) – Native

Medium to Tall Plants for Shade

• False Solomon’s seal (Maianthemum racemosum) – Native
• Solomon’s seal (Polygonatum biflorum) – Native

Ferns for Dry Shade

• Christmas fern (Polystichum acrostichoides) – Native
• Hay-scented fern (Dennstaedtia punctilobula) – Native
• Marginal wood fern (Dryopteris marginalis) – Native
• Male fern (Dryopteris filix-mas) – Native
• Rock fern (Polypodium virginianum) – Native

A Little TLC

It doesn’t take much to keep drought-tolerant plants thriving—just a little attention and some seasonal TLC. While they’re tough, even these hardy perennials appreciate an occasional deep watering during extended dry spells, especially in their first year.

For sun-loving perennials, skip the heavy fertilizers. Instead, an annual layer of compost is all they need to stay healthy and strong.

Shade-loving drought-tolerant plants, on the other hand, benefit from a layer of mulch. This helps retain moisture and reduces evaporation, especially in dry shade, which is one of the most challenging conditions for any plant to thrive in.

And don’t forget to deadhead regularly! Removing spent blooms encourages your plants to keep producing flowers instead of going to seed, meaning more colour, for longer.

With a few simple care tips, your drought-tolerant garden can remain beautiful and resilient throughout the entire season.

Other resources:

• Landscape Ontario: Eight Beautiful Drought Tolerant Plants
• Toronto Master Gardeners: Drought Tolerant Plants
• Guelph.ca: Drought Tolerant Native Plants

During the dog days of summer, having a resilient, dependable, and beautiful perennial flower in your garden is terrific. Meet the Black-Eyed Susan. They are quick to establish and mature, and perfect for a perennial border, cutting garden, or naturalized garden. Depending on the variety, they will grow 1-3 feet tall and spread about 2 feet wide, making them a show-stopping spectacle!

If that and the cheerful, dark-centred, golden-yellow, daisy-shaped flowers aren’t enough to draw you in, here are more reasons we love these plants!

Long Blooming

Black-Eyed Susan (Latin name: Rudbeckia) is a prolific bloomer whose flowers can last from July to October. At a time in the season when many other flowers can look weary, Rudbeckia is a shining star. Its flowers grow on sturdy stems, which adds to their resilience.

Easy to Grow

Rudbeckia are robust! They are drought—and heat-tolerant and generally do well in hard-to-grow locations. Once established, they do not require frequent watering. Rudbeckia hirta is an Ontario native plant, and exceptionally hardy.

Plant Black-Eyed Susan in full sun to partial shade and almost any type of soil. They are adaptable, generally trouble-free and do not require any extra care.

Pollinator-friendly

We aren’t the only ones who love Rudbeckia; butterflies, birds and bees do, too. This makes Black-Eyed Susan a perfect partner for other pollinator-friendly plants like Monarda (aka Wild Bergamot and Bee Balm), Gaillardia (Blanket flower), Yarrow and Echinacea (aka Coneflower).

Who doesn’t love Black-Eyed Susans? Because of the course hairs on the stems, this is a plant that rabbits and deer don’t care for.

Black-Eyed Susan is perfect to grow in a border, bed, planter, or in a field as a mass planting. It’s resilient, attractive, low maintenance and a beneficial addition to any garden!