Yesterday’s post described the differences between annuals and perennials. If annuals die after one season, and perennials come back again and again, why would we ever choose to grow annuals in our gardens?
There are many reasons why.
First of all, if you want to grow food, then most edible plants are annuals. Without annuals, we have no tomatoes or green beans or peppers. We do have blueberries and asparagus, but most of us want more than that on our dinner plates.
Second, annuals are often easy to grow, inexpensive, colorful, and abundant bloomers.
Perennials, in comparison, are reliable and dependable, but few perennials can compare with the splash that annuals like globe amaranth (pictured above), alyssum, pansies, violas, zinnias, cosmos, and sunflowers can make in our flower beds.
Annuals are also a big help when planting new areas in our gardens. Annuals can fill in the spaces between new perennials for a season or two while we wait for those reliable perennials to spread and fill in their space.