No matter what the springtime weather in your neck of the woods, one wary eye cast toward the garden beds lets you know that Mother Nature keeps marching along at a steady pace, regardless of the limited sunshine we’ve had in most parts of northern New England this spring.

Garden work is in abundance. By the beginning of June, most gardeners have put in ample hours tidying the yard, pulling weeds, transplanting, dividing perennials, trimming grass and performing a host of other gardening duties.

Few of us keep records of our gardening tasks. Most of us rely on memory to improve our garden or to avoid past gardening blunders. “I liked having snapdragons in this spot,” we say to ourselves. Or, “This area’s too rocky. I’ll never plant carrots here again.”

When it comes to record keeping, one practical reason for keeping a gardening journal is to identify time spent gardening.

Janet Macunovich, author of “Caring for Perennials,” writes, “One thing my records do is help me figure out how much I can expect to accomplish. I’ve kept records over 12 years to establish the average time needed to care for 100 square feet of various plantings.”

According to her record keeping, to tend 100 square feet of lawn, eight minutes per month is required. Trees, shrubs and groundcover plantings require 10 minutes per month, annual flowers take 20 minutes per month and perennial plantings demand 60 minutes per month.

Naturally, more time is spent during the spring and fall seasons, when the amount of gardening work is greatest. During the middle of summer, the garden does most of the work, yielding to the gardener visual and edible dividends, providing us with a return that compels us to work on without a grudge.

Macunovich’s assessment is interesting, in that it appears to defeat the common conception that perennial gardening is less demanding than gardening with annual flowers.

People often say, “I’m only interested in perennials. I don’t want to have to put annuals in every year.” Macunovich’s record keeping really points to the fact that time spent planting is a relatively small component of the gardening process. Preparing the garden for planting and maintaining the area after planting most likely represent the greatest consumption of labor.

In fact, perennials and annuals both have an important role to play in the garden. Most annuals, of course, bloom continually throughout the season, providing consistent color in the garden from June to frost. Perennials, on the other hand, typically have a season of bloom. We refer to their flowering period in general terms, such as early spring, mid summer or autumn blooming.

Keeping this in mind, a good (and rather simple) general rule of thumb is to create a flower bed in which annuals are grouped together in masses in the fore- and background, and in which perennials are grown in the mid ground area of the bed.

This said, horticulture is both an art and a science and there is no cookie-cutter formulation to produce a beautiful flower garden. Effectively gardening with flowers – and with perennials in particular – exemplifies the artistic aspect of gardening. One must be willing to view the garden as a canvas that is undergoing continual change. Personal style, gardening methods and an incredible range of environmental factors play part in the results of the artwork on an ongoing basis.

As the new gardening season gets under way, roll up your sleeves and go at it full force. Thumb your nose at those raindrops and plant, fertilize, mulch, divide and cut away!

Diana George Chapin is the NEWS garden columnist. Send horticulture questions to Gardening Questions, 512 North Ridge Road, Montville 04941 or e-mail dianagc@midcoast.com. Selected questions will be answered in future columns. Include name, address and telephone number.