Perennials For Up At The Lake
Time up at the lake is meant for rest and recuperation from the normal pace of everyday life. Fishing, swimming and hiking are just some of the “to do” activities, but gardening? That activity may or may not be on your relaxation list. Either way, there are plants that will add beauty to your northern landscape and come as close as any can to being maintenance free. Of course, a box garden with hybrid tea roses and flowering crabapples would be spectacular, but why not choose plants that can handle a little neglect and keep the maintenance to a minimum. That way the chore list will consist of laying in a supply of bug spray, hot dogs, gas for the outboard and firewood for the kids' s'mores. Just enjoy the garden.
The list compiled below combines three essential plant characteristics for cabin gardening:
Adaptability to Zone 3 Conditions
Low-Maintenance/Self-Sufficiency
Deer and Rabbit Resistance
Perennials for Sunny Conditions
Achillea (Yarrow)
Alchemilla (Lady’s Mantle)
Alcea (Hollyhock)
Arctostaphylos (Bearberry)
Artemesia (Wormwood)
Asclepias tuberosa ‘Hello Yellow’ (Butterfly Weed)
Baptisia australis (False Indigo)
Campanula carpatica ‘Blue Uniform’ and ‘White Uniform’ (Bellflower)
Centaurea montana ‘Gold Bullion’ (Bachelor Button)
Cerastium tomentosum (Snow in the Summer)
Chelone (Turtlehead)
Coreopsis verticillata ‘Moonbeam’ and ‘Zagreb’ (Tickseed)
Cornus canadensis (Bunchberry)
Delphinium elatum (Larkspur)
Dianthus ‘Artic Fire’, ‘Eastern Star’, ‘Neon Star’, ‘Zing Rose’ (Carnations or Pinks)
Digitalis (Foxglove)
Gaillardia (Blanket Flower)
Liatris (Gayfeather)
Lupinus (Lupine)
Monarda (Bee Balm)
Nepeta (Catmint)
Paeonia (Peony)
Papaver (Oriental Poppy)
Rudbeckia fulgida (Black-Eyed Susan)
Sedum ‘John Creech’, ‘Angelina’, ‘Autumn Fire’, ‘Neon’, ‘Pink Chablis’, ‘Fireglow’ (Stonecrop)
Trollius (Globeflower)
PERENNIALS FOR SHADY CONDITIONS
Aconitum (Monkshood)
Aquilegia (Columbine)
Aruncus (Goat’s Beard)
Asarum canadensis (Wild Ginger)
Astilbe ‘Glow’, ‘Elizabeth Van Veen’, ‘Ostrich Plume’ (False Spirea)
Bergenia (Pigsqueak)
Brunnera macrophylla (False-Forget-Me-Not)
Dicentra spectabilis (Bleeding Heart)
Ferns
Lamium (Dead Nettle)
Deer resistance is often trial and error. Plants the deer may leave alone at your cabin may be a salad bar at another and vice versa. The important thing is to keep trying new varieties and find what works in your neck of the woods.