By Tiffany Selvey

It is not difficult to find motivation to freshen up an outdoor space in spring. What is slightly more difficult is knowing what to plant. There are so many options — annuals, perennials, bushes, trees, flowers… And don’t forget to feed the bees.

When it comes to suggesting plant varieties for any situation, I like to encourage folks to add plants to their garden that are multi-purpose. Yarrow, for example, is a humble native wildflower, an herb that can be used for tea and it attracts pollinators like bees and butterflies. Red yarrow was even featured on the cover of this year’s David Austin Roses catalog, a fancy-schmancy English Rose catalog. If it is good enough to plant with roses, it is good enough for any space.

To renew your outdoor space, take a look at what you already have. Would it be easier to add new plants in old flower beds or would a container garden suit your space? How much time do you have to maintain your garden? Would you rather sip wine on the back porch then spend the evening pulling weeds? That is not a fair question — I think we would all prefer the first option.

Regardless of whether you are planting a few containers, a cutting garden or a poolside retreat, there are a few flowers that are easy to find locally, simple to plant and require little maintenance.

• Yarrow – Our example from above comes in white, yellow, red and pink. All are beautiful options that look lovely alone or combined. Yarrow is a perennial which thrives in lean, sandy, clay or rocky soils. The blooms and leaves can be dried and used as teas or tinctures. Plant it in the ground or in a container in full sun for the best blooms, then forget it and let it grow.

• Echinacea – Also known as the purple coneflower, echinacea is widely known as a relaxing herb. It is a reseeding annual — so if you leave the blooms at the end of the year to deposit seeds, it will come back the next year from seed. This plant is also loved by pollinators and makes a pretty cut flower.

• Comfrey – This plant also used to be known as “knit bone” because of its potential to help heal broken bones quickly. This medicinal herb is used for topical salves, but should not be ingested. This plant is a nutrient accumulator — that is, its roots grow well below the surface of the soil and bring nutrients up to the surface where they can be absorbed by other plants. Comfrey is a beautiful summer plant that grows about 2 feet tall, and its leaves add valuable nutrients to the compost pile. Bees love the gentle bell-shaped blooms. A few things to consider: the leaves are prickly so don’t plant this along walkways where you would rub against it frequently, and the plant grows and spreads quickly.

• Basil – There are culinary varieties of basil that are quite pretty as well as basil typically grown for its blooms. Either option is easy to grow from transplants or seed and both smell amazing in the heat of summer! Again, bees love the blooms of basil and opal basil is a stunning addition to any flower bed.

I could go on and on with a list of low-maintenance flowers to renew any outdoor space, but this is a good start. Tell me, what is your favorite flower to grow?

Tiffany Selvey is a Washington County Master Gardener who writes about growing food organically at Songbird-Gardens.com. When she is not elbow-deep in soil or teaching gardening classes, she enjoys spending time outside with her husband and son and playing with their rescue cats and dogs.