Low maintenance perennial flower garden

The three kinds of mints invaded my yard. Took a few years to getrid of the two edible ones. Creeping Charlie is impossible to eradicate.

Glad to hear that there is “well behaved” mint, too.

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Mint is invasive rarely in Kansas. It does spread in urban lots but here in the harsher country most winters kill lemon balm, bee balm aka bergemot, peppermint, spearmint. We can however grow sage for a few years and oregeno but eventually it winter kills also. We have a wild mint we call horsemint. Even catnip winter kills. What i will likely do is cross the hardy horsemint with peppermint or a close relative and give it some hardiness here.

Not to add to mamuang’s mint nightmare, but catmint (nepeta x faasseni) has been pretty good for us so far. Seems easy and attractive in a low-key way, and supposed to be a good bee plant (and allegedly hardy to zone 3). There are varieties with sterile seeds if you don’t want it spreading itself around too freely.

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I feel your pain. I put Orange, Strawberry, and Spearmint in the ground my first year. Threw in some Hoja Santa just see who would win the invasive fight. So far I’m the only one losing. Makes a great living mulch, but it all grows faster than Bermuda!

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Weirdly, we’ve actually had trouble getting mint to spread in some places where we actually wanted it to. Almost seems like an accomplishment of some sort! (Very different climate from you, but just down the road from mamuang, more or less.)

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I planted spearmint but its ok because the creeping charlie is everywhere around it. They can battle it out.

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Jim,
When you come this way, I’ll give you creeping Charlies as souvenirs.

By the way, there are several kinds of catmints. The one I have stinks (what luck I have). Crushed leaves smells awful. So awful, my friend refused to take the clump I dug up for him. Meanwhile, plants like Bee Balm and Russian Sage smell so wonderful.

@clarkinks, your ewather can be quite extreme, Your native plants are probably the best choice.

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My creeping charlie has been in full bloom the last week. This was a few days ago. Looking good. Should have plenty of seed.

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I can add it to my extensive weed collection! (If I don’t have it already…)

That’s funny about the stinky catmint. Just tested ours, and it smells nice, that classic minty smell. I think it was sold to us as Walker’s Low, which is supposed to have sterile seeds (I think - guess I’ll find out).

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Well it repels rodents and several pests and feeds beneficial insects in the summer that are necessary to pollinate your trees in the spring. Because it doesn’t need supplemental irrigation, pesticide or fungicide spraying and that it can compete with a grass is a positive.

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I guess beauty is in the eye of a beholder. You see creeping charlie as beneficial plants, I see it as invasive weeds.

I also would like to see documents that they repels rodents and several pests. Would you be able to provide me with a link, please?

In my lawn, bunnies and squirrels running through creeping charlies like they are not there.

In addition to its aggressiveness and is taking over my lawn, I grow some flowering perennials and also don’t like creeping charlies for this characteristic:
“Once established within a lawn, creeping charlie may suppress the growth of surrounding plants, due to a characteristic called “allelopathy”. An allelopathic plant will produce biochemicals that deter the fitness of surrounding plants. One study (Rice, 1986) found that flowers growing alongside creeping Charlie experienced decreased seed germination and faster rates of root and shoot growth.”

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Here is some gallairdia from my garden. Drought tolerant, blooms all season, native to the americas. Cold hardy too

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Lots of great suggestions thanks so much for those ive got a plan now.

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We have patches of spiderwort and yarrow along with lots of others mentioned here that are very low maintenance. Of course, there are always peonies. So much flower bang for very little care. The older types do fine for us and we were able to get some for free.
If you want tall, edible roots and can handle a bit of invasiveness, depending on your space, Jerusalem artichokes are quite pretty.

Yarrow is awfully invasive but sure is hardy!

Interesting. Our yellow yarrow has been very hardy and healthy but not very spready. The little bit of white I put in died. I wonder if our super clay soil is keeping them in line!

Irises will do well in Kansas. There are several iris gardens around the state. At the old abandoned homesteads around here you can still find rose, lilac, and iris. Most varieties are very hardy. I have rescued many and placed them in the yard. Old fashioned purple is abundant. If you ever want any, just let me know.

Robert

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Thank you @robjohn for the kind offer.

Never have observed yarrow being invasive in KY. In my 63 years of experience.

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My favorite plants are Peonies, mostly tree peonies, mine are over 15 years old, don’t need a lot of care.

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