Anonymous wrote:I have a lot of rubedeckia (black eyed susan) and coneflower in the border. Lavender also does beautifully for me, even in a fairly shady spot that gets a lot of water.
I have window boxes that I change out from pansies in winter to annuals for color and cutting. It helps to use a "blooming" fertilizer weekly. I use Fertilome.

+ 1

I have a garden with deers, rabbits and other critters. So I have to be careful about what I plant. I also love attracting birds and butterflies to the garden, having a fragrant garden and a garden heavy on perennials. My annuals are limited to containers on the deck where they have more protection.

Coreopsis "moon beam" is a gorgeous perennial that goes well in a landscape with these plants. Very hardy and deers and rabbits leave it alone.

I have a lot of rubedeckia (black eyed susan) and coneflower in the border. Lavender also does beautifully for me, even in a fairly shady spot that gets a lot of water.
I have window boxes that I change out from pansies in winter to annuals for color and cutting. It helps to use a "blooming" fertilizer weekly. I use Fertilome.

Put in some annuals this year.

OP, I’m so excited for you. I caught the gardening bug with a new home purchase a few years ago.

The best thing I ever did was to make a daylight diagram of my yard once the trees leafed out. I went outside once an hour on sunny days and shaded in photocopied hand-drawn maps of my yard. That helped me to know how many hours of light each planting area received. Previously I had kept guessing that certain areas were full or part sun and then losing plants that were bad fits for where I had sited them.

I made a commitment to perennials because I like to buy and plant once. The trouble is that a lot of perennials only flower for about two weeks before fading. Now I leave room for annuals in containers so that I have more color through the summer, particularly in August when a lot of things fade.

Some perennial plant recommendations below.

Year-round interest shrubs
Mahonia (deer resistant)
Camellia (winter and early spring bloomers, evergreen)
Calicarpa (purple berries)
Cornus sericea (bright red bark)
Leucothe (evergreen, pink-tinged variegated leaves and spring blooms)
Hellebore (evergreen, early bloomers; “Lenten rose” varieties do better in our acidic, clay soil than winter bloomers)

Deep shade combinations
Hosta, tiarella, fern, with huechera or heucherella (comes in different color and leaf sizes)

Shade plants
Goatsbeard (dwarf perennial or shrub; great if you like the look of astilbe but don’t have a place that’s quite wet enough to keep it well)
Toad lily (good for damp planting beds)
Pulmonaria
Balloon flower, particularly platycodon komachi (from seed only)
Dwarf Japanese maple (Mendocino Maples has amazing varieties to order)

Great sun plants
Crocosmia
Acidanthera (fragrant, late season bloomer)
Asclepias
Monarda (lovely scent)
Allium
Salvia (some varieties tolerate part shade; it has a long flowering season if deadheaded)
Spiderwort (tolerates part shade; blooms most of the summer)
Sedum (inexpensive, drought tolerant ground cover; changes color in fall/winter)
Thyme as a ground cover

Avoid
English ivy (It’s hard to be rid of; it chokes trees and shrubs; it’s invasive)
Nandina (So gorgeous, but becoming invasive as birds spread the berries)
Wintercreeper (invasive)
Beautyberry (tenacious, invasive vine)

Anonymous wrote:You'll need to spray weekly against deer. I use one of the all-natural sprays (rotten egg, mint) and it works well.

Only if she has a deer problem.

You'll need to spray weekly against deer. I use one of the all-natural sprays (rotten egg, mint) and it works well.

Here are some of my favorites for a full sun, cutting garden:

Anchor with a dwarf shrub rose and a peony.
Space a long season of a variety of perennials: rudbeckia, ageratum, ecchinacea, monarda, salvia, asters, bacchelors button, shasta daisy
Throw in some bulbs: daffodils and grape hyacinth, dahlia, lilies,
Annuals from seed: sunflowers, lots and lots of zinnia, cosmos
Annuals from nursery: ranunculus, cosmos, gomphrena, angelonia, sweet peas, salvia

And find some shady spots for interesting greenery to add to your cuttings like hostas (away from deer), fern, grasses, brunera, coleus, heuchera.

This op - to clarify the PP I meant poster 14:04